When Parallels Collide
by Adali
Summary: A harmless mission. Love triangles. Personal demons. Ninja fashion. People you really wish would shut up. Kakashi finds love and Sasuke admits his teammates matter. Rated for violence and bad words. Team 7, KakaOC
1. Girl's Not Grey

_I meant to work on at least one of my Harry Potter fics, but lately I've been captivated by the awsomeness that is Naruto. This fic has been kind of floating around in my head for a while now, and hopefully by writing it out I can get back to other important things, like my school work (although whether writing or school is more important has always been up for debate). Sadly, in writing this, I've caught another idea for a Naruto ficlet, but we'll see how this one turns out first. Most chapters are a bit shorter than I normally write, and I'm switching between viewpoints a lot, but I think it's easier to tell the story that way, since it's a bit like how the anime is presented. Also in this one, you get a sampling of the kind of music I listen to (at least, while I'm writing). For simplicity's sake, I've decide to name each chapter after the song written (at least in part) at the beginning of it. Obviously, these songs aren't mine, and if I don't put down the original writer correctly, I'm sorry, but everyone should know that I adore and appreciate their work._

* * *

**Girl's Not Grey**

I'll lay me down tonight,  
Much further down.  
Swim in the calm tonight.  
This art does drown.  
What follows me as the whitest lace of light,  
Will swallow whole just begs to be imbrued?  
What follows has lad me to this place where I belong all erased?  
What follows?

_AFI_

It was a late summer day, and it was raining in Konoha. By the standards of, for instance, the Water Country, it was only a light drizzle, but here in the Fire Country it was more likely to be considered a torrential downpour. Anyone outside for more than a minute would be soaked to the bone, and there was an unseasonable chill to the air which promised a cold for anyone who did not soon go inside to dry off.

The rain hadn't stopped Maito Gai and Rock Lee, though. They were running around the village one thousand times with big bags of rocks. If they didn't, Gai had decreed, they must do five thousand pushups. Tenten and Neji, Lee's long suffering teammates, had gone to the Hyuuga house to train shortly before the rain started.

Now, despite the rain, Gai and Lee were on their final lap. Lee was starting to pull ahead of his teacher. "This is the springtime of youth!" he crowed happily, and was answered by an encouraging shout from Gai. A few seconds later he stopped, however, when he caught up to a third figure on the otherwise empty road. He couldn't remember having seen anyone on any of his previous laps, so this person must just have arrived in front of the village.

If he had been asked to describe the person in front of him, Lee couldn't have done it. The figure wasn't overly tall - somewhere between his own height and Gai-sensei's - but even that was hard to tell with the large farmer's hat that covered their head and obscured their face. The rest of the person, except for a pair of feet in non-descript brown boots that looked like they had be worn a very long time, was covered in a large brown coat, so that Lee couldn't even be sure if the person he addressed was a man or a woman. The figure carried a pack, which might once have been the kind of bag favored by the Konoha shinobi, or might have been any other brown bag.

"Good morning," he greeted the person as courteously as he could. Gai-sensei had always stressed the importance of good manners when you were a wonderful ninja. "Welcome to Konoha. Is there something I can help you find?"

He had the sensation of being scrutinized by a pair of unseen eyes. "Where might I find the Hokage, please?"


	2. Cocaine Cowgirl

**Cocaine Cowgirl**

Looking back on the chapters of your life  
Searching for the storyline  
'Cause the one you live now's doing nothing for you  
Say goodbye to your friends and the ones who lover you.  
Movin' on.

Cocaine cowgirl  
She's out catchin' eyes  
On the other end of the desert skies  
Takin' you down to the dark side of town  
Cocaine cowgirl nobody knows

_Matt Maes and El Torpedo_

_Isn't this just like Konoha_, Kasumi thought, smiling a little to herself. The Hokage's house was big, with plenty of room to accommodate visitors and all the people that helped run the village. It was better kept than the houses of the Mizokage and the Kazekage, whose villages had been decimated by wars over the years and now struggled to maintain their place in the world. Yet it wasn't big and imposing, as was the house of the Tsuchikage in the Hidden Rock village, nor a palatial as that of Raikage, in the Hidden Cloud. Right in the middle, that was where Konoha always fell. A by and large practical people, although she had noticed a tendency towards thick-headedness that could rival even the shinobi of the Hidden Rock.

Still, they were hospitable enough. The door had been opened by a dark haired young woman that the taller of her two escorts - who surely didn't wear those ridiculous green outfits all the time! - had called Shizune. Shizune-san had taken a single look at the three of them, out in the rain, and bundled them inside with the efficiency that Kasumi had come to associate with nurses everywhere, scolding the taller of her guides the whole time about the dangers of being out in weather like this, "especially in that ridiculous outfit of yours!" _So I'm not the only one who thinks those are stupid_, she thoughts.

_Of course not. In all my years…_

_That's enough._

"Would you take off your coat, please?" Shizune-san asked, handing her a mug of tea that she had just brought. Kasumi's fingers closed around it, and for a moment she lost herself in enjoying the feeling of warmth under her fingers. It wasn't really that cold out, and the rain was nothing to what she was used to, growing up in the Water Country, but it was still nice to be warm and dry.

"Even surrounded by ninja, you're worried about an assassination attempt?" she asked. The tea, when she tasted it, was wonderful. She had never been to Konoha before, but she remembered the wonderful food of the Fire Country from the few villages along its edges that she had stopped in before.

Shizune-san glared at her. "Right now, I'm more worried that you'll catch your death of cold," she snapped. _She can't be two years older than me, and she's already as catty as an old woman_, Kasumi thought bitterly. _What will I be like at that age?_

_Don't be ridiculous. She's a good eight years older than you are. And what makes you think I'd let you have anything other than a sweet disposition?_

_Don't even start._

With a small sigh, Kasumi removed her coat and hat, feeling as she did that she was removing her armor against the world. She handed them over to Shizune-san, who took them with the same efficiency she had done everything else so far. Although she was careful not to look anywhere but into her tea mug, she could still feel the eyes of her two guides on her. There were times when she didn't mind being pretty, but most of the time it was just plain annoying.

_There you go again, whining about being beautiful. There's a fair number who would give anything to be you._

Somehow, that only made it worse.

"Would you like me to hand over my weapons before I go to see the Hokage?" Never mind that the rank of Kage was never achieved by any but the most talented of ninja, or that most ninja could kill without weapons, in all countries she had had to turn over her kunai before going in. And yet, here in Konoha…

"You're from the Hidden Mist, are you?" Shizune-san's eyes were understanding, but at the same time held an edge of suspicion that hadn't been there before. Kasumi resisted the urge to cover the offending symbol that was etched into the forehead protector she wore tied about her arm. For what seemed the hundredth time, she wondered why she insisted on wearing the thing. She had forsaken the Hidden Mist as much as it had her, but she still felt a lingering connection. _I'm not a ninja if I'm not from a village, I suppose. _"We don't require that here. We trust our guests."

Kasumi couldn't think of anything to say, either to the open hospitality or the implication that, as a guest, she had better be trustworth. "Thank you."

"Finish your tea. The Hokage will be ready to see you in a minute."

_And you're actually doing what you're told._

_Shut up. It's good tea._


	3. Big Machine

_I'm not actually sure how well the lyrics compliment the chapter they go with, especially these earlier chapters, but I think they fit alright with the story in general, so they stay.

* * *

_

**Big Machine**

Now your world is way too fast  
Nothing's real and nothing lasts  
And I'm aware  
I'm in love but you don't care  
Turn your anger into lust  
I'm still here but you don't trust at all  
And I'll be waiting

_Goo_ _Goo Dolls_

She knew that she was being silly, but Tsunade still felt better for having Kotetsu, Izumo and Kakashi with her when the mysterious visitor was brought up. Shizune hadn't been able to give her much information: the girl was probably a chunin, if her age was anything to go on, and she seemed to prefer to keep her appearance hidden. Of course, Tsunade thought peevishly, age really wasn't anything to go on when guessing a person's ability. Kotetsu and Izumo were in their twenties, but they were chunin, while Kakashi had been made a jonin when he was thirteen. When she'd pressed Shizune for at least a number for that age, the woman had been even less helpful.

"I have to guess from her voice," she had confessed. "I couldn't even see her eyes."

She shouldn't have felt worried about the girl wanted to keep her face hidden, either. Few enough people knew what she really looked like - although everyone knew what she had looked like when she was twenty - and she didn't remember hearing of anyone who had ever seen Kakashi's face, but there was something about that desire to hide that, when encountered in a stranger, set her on edge. She dragged her mind away from her speculations of what the girl could be hiding - a scar? A well-known and less-liked face? - and focus on the most important piece of information she had.

Far more worrying than the girl's unknown level - she might not even have been a shinobi, but Tsunade doubted that - was the one other thing Shizune had noticed. "Her chakra is odd. I can hardly sense it, but what there is of it feels… funny." That told her almost nothing, but she'd had to let it go.

"Enter," she called, in response to a knock on the door. The girl that followed Shizune into the room was not quite what she had been expecting. She was indeed young - twenty, perhaps - but Tsunade couldn't ever remember seeing eyes so old. Strange eyes, they were too, a deep grey-blue like the ocean, but for a second Tsunade could have sworn they flashed with golden fire.

The girl herself was beautiful. Tsunade had the distinct impression that the three men in the room were staring slightly more than was strictly necessary for assessing an unknown ninja. The style of her dress was odd, yet also strangely familiar.

_It had been many, many years ago. She was a genin, and she and her team had gone to the Water Country to escort a feudal lord home. It had been a simple mission, so much so that she was surprised she even remembered it. She had forgotten most of it, in any case, but she remembered the feudal lord laughing at the suggestion that a girl was going to help protect him._

_Then she had met the kunoichi of the Water Country, and Sarutobi had explained why the feudal lord hadn't thought a girl was any use in protecting someone. In the last two decades, the female shinobi of the Hidden Mist had grown almost equal to the men, but back then, they'd hardly been worth anything. Why, a young, untried genin had been a match for even the most talented of them._

_But they had worn those dresses, with their long skirts slit up to the hip on both sides, and had worn their hair loose to their waists, no matter how much it got in their way. The kunoichi were just for show, Sarutobi had told her. They might have had the potential to be talented, but they were never given any training._

This girl was dressed like one of those kunoichi, although Tsunade had never seen one of them, or anyone else so young, with hair that shade of white-silver, although Kakashi's was similar. Perhaps her memory was fading, but in a way it reminded her of the White Fang of Konoha. _Please, don't let there be a connection. Kakashi's team has enough problems without _that _coming into it. _She glanced at the jonin, noting that he looked a little stunned. He'd been reading those trash novels of Jiraya's too much lately, to judge by his face.

"What brings you to Konoha, Kasumi-san?" Tsunade asked once the girl had introduced herself - punctuated with the traditional curtsy of a Water Country kunoichi, Tsunade noticed. _And to me_. The girl didn't look like a shinobi any more than the kunoichi had so long ago, but there was something about her… something about those eyes. Orochimaru had had eyes like that at times, when they were children together and he was trying to suppress something, some emotion, that he didn't want her to see. _She can't be connected with him, can she?_

"I'm looking a boy." It seemed strange that a shinobi from another village would come to Konoha to request a mission. And asking for a meeting with the Hokage was not the way to request one. _But a boy…_

"You could have gone to the office downstairs to request the mission," she said.

The girl smiled in private amusement. "You misunderstand. I'm on the… ah… _mission_ myself. I was told the boy was a shinobi of the Hidden Leaf."

_Uchiha_ _Sasuke_ _or Uzumaki Naruto?_ Tsunade asked herself quietly. She as willing to bet it would be one of the two. There were many talented young shinobi in the village, but those two always seemed to be at the center of things. "His name is Uzumaki Naruto." _Damn_. She would have put money on it being Sasuke.

"Why Naruto?"

"I want to meet him."

Tsunade caught Kakashi's eye. She didn't doubt Naruto would want to meet this girl too. Naruto liked meeting people, and he would probably be thrilled to meet a beautiful girl like this. But still, she couldn't shake the feeling that there was something strange about this girl. And there _was _something strange: the sense of her chakra, as Shizune had said, was very odd. Still, there was no way she could stop the girl short of force, and so far she hadn't seen anything threatening about the girl. If anything, she seemed as innocent as could be. Yet…

"It's a long way to come for curiosity."

Kasumi shrugged. "I spend my time traveling in any case. And there was a young man in the Hidden Sand who thought I might find Uzumaki Naruto interesting."

"Gaara, by any chance?" _Ah_, Tsunade thought. So _Kakashi_ _can still think, at any rate_. She didn't know Gaara personally, but his name had come up in several reports of the disastrous Sand and Sound attack on Konoha.

Kasumi nodded. Against her better judgment, Tsunade found herself saying, "Kakashi, Naruto is on your team. Perhaps you would introduce Kasumi-san to him?"

_And I thought that boy was too old to blush_, she thought wryly to herself as Kakashi led the young woman from the room. _Looks like he can, and badly enough that even his mask doesn't hide it!_


	4. Name

**Name**

Scars are souvenirs you never lose  
The past is never far  
Did you lose yourself somewhere out there  
Did you get to be a star  
And don't it make you sad to know that life  
Is more than who we are

_Goo_ _Goo Dolls_

_He's kind of cute_, Kasumi found herself thinking as the white-haired ninja led her away out of the Hokage's office. _Although the mask hides it._

_Don't you go starting with that, young lady._

_Well, he is_, she thought rebelliously. She fought to keep the blush out of her cheeks. If she blushed, her cheeks tended to burn bright, bright red, and _everyone _noticed. Just another drawback of pale skin.

_Don't start whining about that again._

"Why do…"

Whatever the man - Kakashi, Hokage-sama had called him - had been about to ask was cut off by the arrival of her initial two guides, still in their strange green suits. "Hatake Kakashi, where are you going with our visitor?"

"Eh?" Was it just that his whole face excepting his right eye was covered, or did Kakashi really have very little expression, Kasumi found herself wondering. He was looking at the man in green with what seemed to be mild puzzlement.

"Showing this fair lady around the village is a job for Konoha's Sublime Green Beast of Prey!"

"The Springtime of Youth will triumph!" the smaller one, presumably his student, added. _The Springtime of Youth?_ Kasumi wondered. _What in the world?_

_Well, don't ask _me.

_I wasn't._

Kakashi was looking at her as though expecting her to sort it all out. Being pretty could be so troublesome. "That's very nice to hear. Another time, perhaps. I'm supposed to be meeting someone." She took her coat and hat from where Shizune-san had hung them up.

"Ah, my rival has won again!" The man seemed quite anguished by this. Kakashi shrugged. "How can you be so cool?" the man was demanding, to which his rival shrugged again. _They're all insane._

"Are they always like that?" she asked as she followed Kakashi out into the rain, adjusting her hat as she did.

"Mostly. Why do you want to meet Naruto?"

_That must be what he wanted to ask before._ "Gaara-kun mentioned him."

"You said."

He was obviously waiting for a more complete answer. _I wish my teachers had cared as much about me._

_Maybe if you'd had any talent._

_Maybe if I'd been normal._

"I talked to Temari. She said that Gaara-kun has changed immeasurably, and it's because of Uzumaki Naruto. I wanted to meet him."

"Nothing to do with Akatsuki, then?"

"Akatsuki? No. Why?" She looked at him. The man seemed to have even less emotion than before. "Oh dear. I'd rather not get mixed up with them again."

"Again?"

_Well, that worked well. Now he's going to start questions, you stupid girl._

_It wouldn't be an issue if I was normal._

"I've met a few of them." She said it in a way that she hoped would stop any more questions, at least until she had decided how much she could trust this man. The trouble was, she found herself wanting to confide in him, and that could be a very dangerous thing.

The building Kakashi took her to had 'Ninja Academy' written over the door. Kasumi heard young children talking in the rooms off the hallway. She caught sight of a few children, mostly slumped over desks, as Kakashi led her past a series of classrooms to a small practice room. Three children were seated in a circle, apparently meditating.

_Children?_ _You aren't even ten years older than this lot._

There was a girl with pink hair, who Kasumi dismissed immediately. There was something about the way she dressed which reminded her of the old kunoichi of the Hidden Mist.

_It's the dress, _she realized. _It's like a shorter version of mine._

_Don't start complaining about the dress again. I like it._

Next to her was a blond boy. With strange whisker marks on his face, Kasumi had little doubt that this was the Uzumaki Naruto she had been looking for. It seemed, sometimes, that no matter how a jinchuriki tried to hide what lived inside them, the beast still found a way to mark them so that the world could see the monster within. _It looks like only his face has been marked, at least. Not his soul, like poor Gaara-kun.._

_Don't finish that thought._

"Yo," Kakashi said. Naruto and the girl opened their eyes. The second boy turned around, and for a moment Kasumi couldn't even put together a coherent thought.

"_Itachi-kun?_"


	5. Just Like You

**Just Like You**

We didn't understand the truth  
We were blinded by the eyes of youth  
But time kept on moving  
And a change has come  
You think that I don't know  
Where you're coming from

'Cause I feel just like you  
And I cry just like you  
But I heal just like you  
And under my skin  
I'm just like you

_Keb_' _Mo'_

Naruto was on his feet in an instant, and looked ready to attack. "Who are you?" he demanded.

"Sit down, Naruto," Kakashi said quietly. "Sakura, I think we'll need some tea." The girl, her eyes wide, nodded and hurried out. Kasumi completely missed the concerned look he sent her. He had every reason to be concerned, although Kasumi couldn't have known it: her face was pale as death, and her eyes wide as though she had just seen a ghost.

_Tea would be good_¸ Kasumi thought distractedly as she sank to the floor. The boy had not, in fact, been Itachi, but the resemblance was so strong that even now, when the initial shock had worn off, it disturbed her.

The girl - Sakura - returned with the tea very quickly. _They must keep some ready, _was all Kasumi could think. During the entire time she was gone, both the boys watched her suspiciously, something Kakashi appeared not to notice.

When they were all seated, though, it was Kakashi that broke the silence. "Naruto, Kasumi-san has come a very long way to meet you."

"Why? And how do you know _that man_?" Surprisingly, it wasn't Naruto that challenged her, but the other boy, the one that looked so like Itachi.

Kasumi hesitated, sipping her tea to buy time. She'd known when this journey had first been proposed that it would mean revealing her secret, which she'd only revealed to one person in all her twenty years. Still, the prospect was frightening.

"Do they know about Akatsuki?" she asked Kakashi. Naruto looked ready to jump at her, and only the firm gaze of his sensei kept him seated. It was answer enough. Perhaps it had been the wrong place to start.

_Best to start at the beginning._ _And don't you go leaving things out._

"You probably also know that, about thirteen years ago, the Hidden Sand attempted to create the ultimate shinobi by trapping Shakaku in a baby."

Naruto's murmur of "Gaara" was all she needed to confirm that they did, indeed, know the story.

"They weren't the only ones who had that idea. Eight years before, the Mizokage and the shinobi of the Hidden Mist had thought to try the same thing, although with a weaker power. As far as they knew, the experiment was a complete failure. Four of the shinobi involved in the sealing died, and the child never showed any signs of having the power they had tried to harness."

_She remembered the tests. They'd put her in unbelievable situations, trying to force the chakra out of her. She'd proven to be weaker than many of the other youngsters at the Academy, and after a few months they had stopped for fear that she would be killed, and a better shinobi would have to die in the Academy's final exams._

"That is the official story. The truth, although they didn't know it for many years, is that the jutsu worked. But instead of a lesser water demon, they had caught the Sea Dragon."

_You could have made it more dramatic. I'm something of a big deal, I'll have you know._

_No, you aren't. No one even remembers the Elemental Dragons anymore. You're just a pest who happened to be too curious._

"It's power, rather than a failed jutsu, is what killed the shinobi. But when it realized what had happened, it was determined not to be used by humans for power, so it hid it's presence within the child."

_Except for its voice._ _Growing up, she had never told anyone about the voice in her head. Sometimes, she'd wondered if it wasn't just her imagination, or if she was crazy, but it has always been too real for that._

"This would be you, right?" said the boy who looked like Itachi. He looked bored.

_Fool, _she thought.

_Hardly worth eating_.

"Yes. And you wanted to know about Itachi-kun, didn't you? Then listen."

_Temper, temper._

_You shut up too. This is all your fault. If you hadn't gotten curious about all that chakra, the jutsu would have worked, and they would all have been happy._

_You'd be dead._

"Hoshigake Kisame was always suspicious of me. I'm sure he suspected that the jutsu had actually worked, and that I was just being stubborn. Seven years ago, he called one of his friends from Akatsuki to look at me and try to see the chakra he was sure I was hiding."

"Uchiha Itachi," Kakashi supplied. "The Sharingan would have been able to see it."

Kasumi nodded. "I didn't know that was why he was there, of course. He came to visit the village, and he watched me a lot, but that didn't mean anything. A lot of boys watched me."

"That's because you're really pretty," Naruto told her matter-of-factly.

_Having the Kyubi inside him does not necessarily make him smart._

_I noticed._

"Thank you. Except I think that was one of the things that made Kisame-senpai suspicious of me. I wasn't always, you know. I was a chubby little kid who always had dirt in my hair and snot on my nose." Kasumi smiled a little at the memory. She'd been plain as anything, and no one had thought anything of it.

_Because after Mother died, no one wanted to touch the failed experiment, even if I was harmless. And even she only did it out of a sense of duty, in any case._ She didn't say it out loud, though. Speaking ill of the dead never gained you anything.

"But around the time I turned ten, the dragon decided if it was going to be stuck in a human, it ought to be a beautiful human like the ones that used to be sacrificed to him."

_Ah, the good old days._

_No more of that out of you. You know what I think of that whole sacrificing maidens thing._

_It was proper manners._

"So he used his chakra to make me this way." Kakashi looked a little surprised. The mini-Itachi still looked a little bored, but Naruto and Sakura were both wide-eyed as they listened to the story.

"I didn't think anything of it until several years later, when I learned about Akatsuki. But that was how I met Uchiha Itachi."

_After a while he had stopped watching, and come to talk to her. They were of an age, and she was beautiful while he was talented. Some of the older, more romantic ladies in the village had thought they would make a good match: if Kasumi didn't have any talent herself, at least she could be used to secure some talent for the village._

_It had suited Itachi to be seen with her, and Kasumi had found people were nicer to her now that they thought she might have some use to the village. The jutsu hadn't worked, she hadn't been born as the boy they had hoped for, she'd shown almost no talent in the Academy and they were sure it was a miracle that she had survived the final exam, but now there was a chance that she could bring a very talented shinobi into the village._

_There hadn't been love, or even real friendship between them. Itachi was incapable of love, and the dragon didn't trust Itachi. Still, Itachi had come to trust her enough to tell her how he had murdered his family and left his village. It had been all Kasumi could do to stop the dragon bursting out and killing the young man on the spot. She had been so afraid that someone would see, and realize that she had power after all._

_But nothing had happened, and eventually Itachi had left, and though she had met some members of Akatsuki later during her travels, she had not seen Itachi or Kisame-san since._

Recollection tugged at her. "You would be his baby brother, then."

"Uchiha Sasuke," Kakashi told her.


	6. The Real Life

_I know I haven't update in forever. In my defence, there is something seriously wrong with my computer, so that while it does everything else just fine, it won't support scripts (or something, I don't understand computers) and mostly doesn't work. Which is very sad, because I have trouble reading all the lovely stories posted here. In any case, here's a massive update while I have the means to do it: chapters six through thirteen. The whole story is almost done (23 chapters), but the last ten need to be edited still. Thanks for being patient!

* * *

_

**The Real Life**

I wanted to find somewhere to hide  
And I opened up and let those fears inside  
And I wanted to be anyone else  
Only to find that there was no one there but me

_Three Doors Down_

_You like making things difficult for yourself, don't you?_

_I do nothing of the sort. You're the one who makes things difficult for me,_ Kasumi snapped back.

_Well you didn't have to go mentioning that Itachi bastard, did you? I told you he was nothing but trouble._

You're _nothing but trouble._

_Don't be like that. You'd be dead if not for me and my chakra._

_I'd have my own if you hadn't stolen all of it to hide yourself. Besides, it's not as though anything happened with him._

_Oh, didn't it? The village elders were planning your wedding._

_They never…_

_They had already picked out your dress. Just think, you could have been married to a mass-murderer._

_As opposed to having one living in my head?_

_That's a low blow._

"Are you alright?" Kakashi asked her. He was being extremely solicitous, helping her get settled into one of the rooms the Academy kept for visiting shinobi.

Kasumi offered him a tentative smile. "It didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped." Well, it had been disastrous. At least Kakashi had been there, to calmly suggest they go their separate ways for the night and meet again in the morning when tempers had cooled.

"Nothing ever does, with Naruto. He's unpredictable."

"The Kyubi is like that, too." She wasn't looking at him, but she knew his nonchalant pose grew considerably more wary as he tried to internalize what she had said.

"You knew…?"

"Not personally, although Ryuu met it a couple of times. The dragon," she added, by way of explanation. "He says Naruto-kun is very much the Kyubi personified in some ways, his temper especially. Although he's not sure if that's because of Kyubi, or if Naruto-kun would just be that way on his own."

There was silence for a time. "Why did you want to meet Naruto?"

_You didn't, _Ryuu reminded her. _You were afraid. You were afraid there was someone else like you. Your problem, girl, is that you care about people too much. Even people you don't know. Why, I'll never know, not if I live to be ten thousand, seeing how they used to treat you…_

_That's enough!_

"I was alone for a long time," she said at last. "I only ever had Ryuu. When I met Gaara-kun… when I learned that there was a third… I had to know for sure. I hate the thought of people being alone."

_Well, don't you sound like a crybaby. I've been alone _forever.

_Then why didn't you kill me and leave when you had the chance?_

_The problem with you humans is that you think you know everything, when in fact you don't understand anything._

_Typical._

"Ah." He looked ready to leave, but turned back for a moment. "Naruto isn't like you and Gaara. He's never killed anyone." She nodded, not looking at him. Death had been a part of her life since she was born - since even before that, in a way. The deaths of humans didn't impact a dragon that would live thousands of years, and Ryuu had been killing humans without a thought for centuries before she had been born. And in the village… Kasumi had no illusions about the Hidden Mist Village. It's nickname, the Bloody Mist, was well earned. She had graduated from the Academy a year before Momochi Zabuza had turned the final exam into a massacre and the practice of death matches between students had had to be discontinued.

_That should have been me that died, _she thought. Closing her eyes as she lay down to sleep, the scene came back to her. _They called even numbers, so that no student would have to risk death more than once. There was an especially promising batch that year, and the teachers wanted more than half the candidates to pass through. So they had inflated the numbers, bringing in a few that they thought could pass the basic tests, but who wouldn't stand a chance in battle. Children with only a slight control of their chakra, or ones like Kasumi with hardly any chakra at all._

_Umi-chan._ _That was the boy she had killed. He wasn't the most promising of the candidates, but most of his family had turned into strong shinobi, and the teachers wanted to give him a chance. They'd put him against Kasumi on the basis that anyone, even a boy with a below average amount of chakra and a mediocre level of control, could beat an eight year old girl without any chakra at all. His family had had such hopes for him, naming him after the ocean, in the hope that one day he would be one of the greatest shinobi of the Water Country, despite his unpromising start._

_Except that Kasumi had chakra. She had fountains of it, hidden away by Ryuu so that even she didn't know where to find it. He had given her a little, once in a while, when no one was around, and taught her how to use it._

_Even if he had given it to her for practice, she couldn't have done most of the basic jutsus with it. Her chakra, long ago taken over by the dragon, had melded with his, and no longer moved the way human chakra was supposed to. But Ryuu was the Sea Dragon, and in the Water Country there was nothing more powerful than a being with absolute control over water._

_The teachers had thought, later, that Kasumi had accidentally used a strike such as those used by the Hyuuga clan of Konoha, and struck an essential point on her opponent's heart with chakra just before the boy could plunge his kunai into her. But Kasumi knew that, in a burst of panic, she had stopped thinking, and Ryuu had taken over. She had watched as her body, out of her control, shoved water from all the cells around in the boy's heart into that organ, stopping it suddenly and violently._

When at last she dropped off to sleep, the dragon within her sighed to itself. _I don't know what her problem is. At least she's still alive._


	7. 5 Days in May

**Five Days in May**

Sometimes the world begins  
To set you up on your feet again  
It wipes the tears from your eyes  
How will you ever know  
The way that circumstances go  
Always going to hit you by surprise

_Blue Rodeo_

When Sakura had first graduated from the Academy, she'd made an effort to not only be on time to any meeting their team had, but a little bit early. Despite what Ino-pig claimed, that wasn't so she could show off for Sasuke-kun. It was just the way she was: meticulous, thoughtful, and hard-working. But these last few weeks, she'd begun to wonder if maybe she couldn't be just a little late. It wasn't like she would miss anything important, in any case. Kakashi-sensei was _always _late.

Except that, every once in a while, he wasn't. There were some days when he was exactly on time. Which made Sakura wonder, for the thousandth time, if he didn't do it on purpose. But whoever heard of someone who was late on purpose? A little late, maybe, just to make an entrance, but Kakashi-sensei was almost always hours late.

_Well_, she decided as she let herself out of the house, careful not to wake anyone else_, the longer I'm there, the more time I get to spend with Sasuke-kun._

As was often the case, she was the first one to the meeting point. She found a spot in the early morning sunshine and sat down to wait. After a few minutes she spotted a figure approaching, but with the sun behind them she couldn't tell who it was. _Too short to be Kakashi-sensei_, she thought. _Please, please be Sasuke-kun._

It was; she knew even before she could see him clearly. Naruto always greeted her with a cheerful "Good morning, Sakura-chan," but much as it hurt, Sasuke-kun never did. Sometimes it seemed like he wouldn't even talk to her if he could help it.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun. Did you sleep well?"

"Morning, Sakura-chan!" _Great. You just had to show up, didn't you, Naruto?_

Sakura sighed, preparing herself to spend another few hours with her two teammates: one who she wished would talk to her, but wouldn't, and one who she didn't want to, but did. _How will they act towards each other today? _She mused. _Will they spend the whole time insulting one another, or will today be one of the good days when they just ignore each other?_ Either way, it would be a long wait until Kakashi-sensei arrived.

"Yo." Sasuke-kun and Naruto left off giving each other death glares to look up to the tree above them, where their sensei now perched. But not alone, Sakura noticed with a sinking feeling in her stomach. Kasumi-san was with him, the hem of her long brown coat stirring a little in the breeze.

"What are you doing here?" Only Naruto could be so untactful.

Kasumi-san, for a wonder, just smiled at him. "The Hokage thought I might go along with you on your mission to the Rain Country." She gave Naruto a mischievous grin. "Tsunade-sama didn't think Kakashi-san alone would be enough to keep you out of trouble, Naruto-chan."

"What the hell? Granny Tsunade did this?"

_How typically Naruto._

She caught up to Sasuke-kun as they left the village, and walked besides him. Despite her hopes, though, he didn't seem inclined to start a conversation. "What do you think of Kasumi-san?" she asked him quietly.

"An unknown shinobi that knows _that man_?" He shook his head. "I don't trust her."

"Kakashi-sensei seems to like her."

Another voice broke in over any reply Sasuke-kun was about to make. "Naruto, where are you…. Hello!"

"Eh, eh, Ero-sennin, leave her alone!" _First he's yelling at her, then he's defending her. Naruto sure can't make up his mind._

Jiraiya-sama had all but butted Kakashi-sensei aside to lean very close to Kasumi-san. _Maybe there's something to that name Ero-sennin after all. Although she _is _very pretty. Much prettier than me, with my big forehead. _Sakura sighed aloud.

Sasuke-kun glanced back at her. "Don't tell me you want that old man looking at you," he said with a slight sneer. _No, Sasuke-kun_, she wanted to shout, _just you! _But she couldn't.

"Ah, good morning Jiraiya-sama," said Kakashi-sensei was running his hand through his hair the way he did when he was a bit embarrassed or found something funny.

Sakura grabbed Naruto, who looked like he was about to make another grab for the sannin's attention. _Honestly, he's so rude to both Jiraiya-sama and Hokage-sama, it's going to get him in trouble one day._ "Shut up, idiot." Naruto, for once, did as he was told and kept silent.

"And who is this lovely lady?" Even for as great a ninja as Jiraiya-sama, standing that close was asking for trouble.

Kasumi-san's eyes narrowed a little, much the way Sakura had seen Hokage-sama's do when she thought Jiraiya-sama was staring at her too much. "Ero-sennin, eh?"

"No, no, no, don't pay any attention to the brat."

"Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi started to say, before he was cut off.

"Quiet, brat. I am…" _Here is comes… _"The Gama-sennin, one of the three Sannin, and best-selling author, Jiraiya!" He gave her what he no doubt thought was a winning smile. _Gross._

"That's gross," Sasuke-kun said quietly.

"Oh Sasuke-kun, I was just thinking the same thing!"

"Quiet," he hissed back.

"Tsunade-sama was right to warn me about you, it seems," Kasumi drawled. "And Naruto," she gave the boy a winning smile (which caused Jiraiya-sama to glare at him) "I love your nickname for him." She turned back to the sannin. "I have heard of you before, though." Her grin was positively wicked, and Sakura found herself disliking the woman just a little less. "Mizokage-sama is a big fan of your books, the disgusting old bat. Kakashi-san? You wanted to leave early, I thought."

A nod in reply. "Let's head out."

_I don't know if she can fight,_ Sakura found herself thinking as they hiked down the road, _but she sure keeps everyone around her off-balance. I think she might be even scarier than Hokage-sama if she gets mad!_


	8. I'm the Fool

**I'm the Fool**

I left my dreams with broken strings  
It's time I learnt to talk  
Stop falling over things  
Teach myself to walk  
I'm not a superman  
Or Mr. Wonderful  
Because I'm the fool I never  
Fool I never thought I was

I'm the know it all  
Trying to mend his broken heart  
But I don't know how to call

And I don't know where to start

_Mark Knopfler_

_This kid is really something else._

They had been traveling all day, and were only now coming in sight of the town where they would stop for the night. Naruto had been walking beside her all day, chatting. On her other side, Kakashi-san had been as quiet as Naruto was loud.

"Did Granny Tsunade really warn you about Ero-sennin?"

_Still, he's amusing. _She reached over and flicked his forehead. "Yes, she did. Right before we left this morning. Although she was a bit more respectful towards him than you are."

"Huh."

"Well, seeing as he can beat you up _really bad_, you might try it sometime."

He crossed his arms. _How old is he? Too old to be acting like that, I'm sure. _"Ero-sennin isn't interested in anything but girls and sake."

"But Tsunade-sama isn't, and you aren't too polite to her, either."

"Why would I want to be?"

"Well, sometimes it makes life easier. And you can stop glaring at my back, Uchiha boy, it's not doing anything but annoying me."

You're _teaching people about manners?_

_Be quiet, you stupid lizard._

"Kasumi-san." It was the girl, Sakura. "Why are you coming with us?"

"I don't have anything else to do."

"Then why did you come to Konoha?"

"On a whim." She grinned over her shoulder at Sakura. "You'll have to learn, Sakura-chan, that there are two types of people in this world. There are people with dreams, who will do anything to achieve them. And there are those of us who are happy just to drift."

"But don't you have a dream?"

This time, Kasumi's smile was dry. "There aren't a lot of opportunities for someone with a great stupid lizard in their head."

_Weren't we just discussing manners?_ Ryuu demanded.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Naruto's face crumble a little before he mastered himself. _Oops. Forgot about the Kyubi. _"Naruto," she said quietly. "The Kyubi is different from Ryuu. You can draw on its power, but it doesn't live in your head all the time."

"You mean, you can talk to the dragon?"

"All the time. He almost never shuts up." _A bit like you._

_I heard that, you know._

For some reason, this seemed to impress the boy. "What does he say about me? Huh?"

_He's talkative, for something not big enough to be a snack._

"He says you talk a lot for something not even big enough to be a snack," she told Naruto, trying to keep her face empty. Ryuu was serious, but she found the comment funny.

She thought she heard a snort from behind her. "You don't even want to know what he thinks of you, little Uchiha boy."

"See if I care."


	9. I'm the Fool II

**I'm the Fool (II)**

I never thought I'd be the one  
To be the raging bull  
There's always be a smoking gun  
Who'd up and lose his cool  
I never thought I'd have to say  
I'm sorry, my love, because  
I'm the fool I never  
Fool I never thought I was

_Mark Knopfler_

They had been on the road for a few days, and the forests of the Fire Country were giving way to the rolling fields of the Grass Country. Over those days, Sakura had grown to like Kasumi-san, even though she hadn't learned that much more about the woman. Kasumi-san didn't seem very inclined to join any scraps they got into, although she did her share of the work in everything else. She'd told Sakura that she was a chicken when it came to fighting, but Sakura had her doubts about this. Kasumi-san hadn't looked at all afraid when bandits had come after them, that one time. She'd hardly even glanced at them. And then there had been that time in the town when the drunk man had been a little too forward with her. Kasumi-san had glared at him, and made a single hand seal - one handed, at that, which she had only ever seen Haku do, what seemed ages ago - and suddenly he was running for his life.

"Kasumi-san?"

The older woman looked back from where she was talking to Naruto. "Yes?"

"Why are we going through the Grass Country? Wouldn't it be faster to go through the Country of Wind?"

"Only by about half a day. Besides, there's still a lot of fighting there, ever since the Kazekage was killed. It should settle down soon, but until then it's better to avoid it."

"Didn't you just come from the Hidden Sand?" Kasumi-san's charm had done some to win Sasuke-kun over, but Sakura had noticed he was still suspicious of her.

"I did." Kasumi-san either didn't notice Sasuke-kun's tone, or was ignoring it. "But Gaara-kun came with me for most of the journey, and there isn't a shinobi in the Wind Country that will go against him."

"Couldn't you have defended yourself?"

Kasumi-san shrugged. "A water-style ninja is at a natural disadvantage in a desert. I could have, but it would have slowed me considerably."

"And you don't like fighting," Sakura added.

"Right."

"So you're helpless in a desert?" Sakura couldn't fault Sasuke-kun for being a bit suspicious, but she didn't think he should be so completely derisive of another ninja.

"At a disadvantage, I said," Kasumi-san reminded him gently. "It is harder for me, because there is so little water, but that doesn't make me helpless."

Sasuke-kun just snorted. _Oh, Sasuke-kun, please don't do this._ "You can fight me yourself, if you want. You seem convinced that I'm weak. You should win easily."

"Fine."

Sakura saw Kasumi-san and Kakashi-sensei exchange what seemed a very significant look. "I suppose we have time," the jonin allowed, "but it seems pointless."

Naruto looked agitated. _Oh no, he's going to say something stupid. _Before he could, though, Kasumi-san ruffled his hair affectionately. Naruto gave her that glare he used when he thought he ought to be annoyed, but was actually enjoying something. "No worries, Naruto-kun, we'll both be fine." She handed Kakashi-sensei her pack with a few whispered words and a small smile. "Whenever you're ready, Uchiha."

_Sasuke-kun! Don't! Can't you see she's just making fun of you?_

But it was too late. Already three kunai were flying at amazing speed towards Kasumi-san, who didn't even see them. They were all aimed directly at her and yet, somehow, they whistled past without touching her. More were flying, yet they missed too.

The fireball that followed close behind dissolved into a cloud of steam after two quick, single-handed seals from Kasumi-san.

_Sasuke-kun! This is bad. She's not even attacking, and he can't do anything._

Then Kasumi-san did the single hand seal that Sakura had seen her use on the drunk. Sasuke-kun, who had been running at her, ready for another attack, stopped suddenly and doubled over, holding his stomach.

"It's over, Baby Uchiha. Give up before you get hurt." Sasuke-kun glared at her, his face very red. He didn't seem able to answer. "It's a dirty trick, I know," Kasumi-san said with a small smile, "but you aren't hurt yet, even if you can't fight anymore. Something is going to rupture in a moment, though, if you don't give up or find yourself a toilet."

When Sasuke-kun continued to glare, she sighed and made another hand seal. Sasuke-kun collapsed, gasping for breath.

"What did you do?" Sakura demanded, running to check that Sasuke-kun was alright. _If she's hurt him, I'll… I'll…_

"I filled his bladder with water." The woman shrugged. "As I said, it's a dirty trick, but I've never met anyone who could fight when they had to go to the bathroom so badly that they're ready to burst."


	10. I'm Telling You Now

**I'm Telling You Now**

So much has went unspoken  
Along the way  
Hearts have healed  
And hearts have broken  
In the pain of yesterday  
Gone are the shadows  
They vanished in the light  
Let your heart surrender  
Let your soul take flight

_Keb_' _Mo'_

"Sasuke-kun, are you alright?" How many times had she asked him that already? A dozen, at least. He hadn't answered yet, hoping she would take the hint and leave him alone. Physically, he was fine: Kasumi's technique hadn't done any actual harm. But mentally… she'd made it very clear that he'd gotten off lightly. It would have been just as easy for her to fill his heart or his brain with water as his bladder, and killed him in seconds. Less, even. It took her no time, no effort, and there was no counter.

"Call me a chicken if you want," she'd whispered to him after they'd set off after their little confrontation. "But don't be an idiot and think you can beat me."

She'd as good as called him weak. And he was, too. He thought he'd gotten strong, but that encounter with Itachi had shown him just how weak he really was. And now Kasumi had hammered the point home.

"Sasuke-kun…" He turned away pointedly. Kakashi had given him an odd look the first time he refused to answer when spoken to, but had ignored him since. Naruto had tried to get him to talk a couple of times, mostly by insulting him, but seemed to have given up and gone into a patented Naruto sulk. Now if only Sakura would leave off bothering him so he could think.

It wasn't until they had their supper in front of them that he'd settled on what he wanted to say. It was a good time, too, since Kakashi-sensei had gone off to do something else, leaving the three genin to eat with their strange companion. "Kasumi?"

She smiled at him from across the table. "Talking again, little Uchiha boy?" she teased. She didn't seem to have a malevolent bone in her body. She should be at least annoyed with him, for doubting her and making fun of her and then being a sulky pain in the ass all day. _And yet…_ she was smiling and joking as though nothing had ever happened.

"Could you beat Itachi?"

"I doubt it would ever be an issue."

"You're that confident?"

"I don't think he'd fight me." She toyed with her chopsticks. "As far as most of the people in Hidden Mist, and Itachi-kun as well, are concerned, I hardly have enough chakra to manage henge-no-jutsu. Itachi-kun is very proud. He wouldn't fight someone like me."

"But if he did?"

Kasumi was silent for a time. "I actually kind of liked your brother, Baby Uchiha. He was prideful and arrogant and even cruel, and he'd done some horrible things… he's probably done lots more since the last time I saw him… but he was a friend to me when I didn't have anyone else."

"He was sent to spy on you!" Naruto exclaimed angrily.

"Hush. Yes, he was. But he didn't have to be nice to me. Little Uchiha, I don't know what would happen if I faced Itachi-kun, but I hope I never find out."  
"What about Orochimaru?"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"One of the Sannin, eh? You're full of questions tonight." Kasumi grinned at him. "Do you want to just hold a tournament for the world's best ninjas? See how I rank?" She poked him lightly in the forehead. "Orochimaru was sneaking around for thirty years before I was born. He might catch me by surprise. If he killed me before I knew he was there…" she let the sentence hang. "But I've always heard that Orochimaru liked to play with his victims before he kills them, and by all accounts he has some interesting techniques. It would be interesting, I'll give you that." She put her chopsticks down. "Goodnight, you three. Don't stay up too late bickering."

After she had gone, it was Sakura that broke the silence. "I can't believe Kakashi-sensei likes her. They're so different."

"How could he not like her?" Naruto wanted to know. "She's so cool, and she's tons of fun to travel with."

"Idiot! I mean _really _likes her. Haven't you noticed? He's completely smitten." Sakura looked a bit smug at having noticed something the two boys hadn't.

"I don't believe it. Kakashi-sensei isn't Ero-sennin."

Sakura rolled her eyes. "You don't have to be a pervert to like someone." Sasuke noticed she looked at him in a very meaningful way. _She's so annoying._ "Even if he does read those disgusting books of Jiraiya-sama's."

"Why don't we test it? She's gone to bed, we can do henge-no-jutsu…" _which she can't_, he added silently to himself.

"Sasuke-kun… that's so…"

"Awsome!" Naruto finished, although Sasuke suspected that that wasn't the word Sakura had been looking for.

"But…"

Sasuke glared at Sakura. "Are you in or what?"

"Of course," she murmured. _Now it's only a question of what we're going to get out of this._


	11. Moon and Tree

**Moon and Tree**

Well I've been out walking  
Talking to moon and tree  
And the tall spring grass  
Like waves on a dark green sea  
So much of what we are  
We will always be  
And I don't mind getting lost  
In your dream

_Blue Rodeo_

_Get over this silly crush of yours, girl!_

_It's not… oh, who am I kidding, of course it's silly._

Ryuu's next words sounded almost kind. _You can only get hurt, Kasumi-chan. He's too much the lone wolf._

_Then I'll just enjoy it while I can, won't I?_

_Foolish girl._

"Kasumi?"

"Kakashi. How was your scouting?"

"Not as productive as I'd like," he admitted as he led her into the room he shared with Naruto and Sasuke. There were maps spread out on the low table, showing various bits of the Grass and Rain countries. "The Grass country is fairly relaxed towards Konoha at the moment, but the Rain lost quite a few good shinobi during that disastrous chuunin exam."

"We already knew that," Kasumi pointed out. "They couldn't be more specific?"

"Most people don't even think there will be a problem. But all it takes is a few angry hot-heads…"

"True. On the other hand, it would be a good opportunity for the Uchiha boy to learn a few new techniques."

"Hokage-sama specifically requested that we try to avoid as many fights as possible."

Kasumi giggled. "She knows we're traveling with Naruto, doesn't she? That boy seems to invite trouble. Oh, relax," she added, seeing his single visible eyebrow lower. "It's fun."

"Speaking of fun…" She looked at him sharply. _He's not implying… _"I can hear those three giggling. Sounds like… yes, it's Sakura they've transformed into you."

_That was lucky. I thought it was going to get awkward._

_It might yet, girly._

Kasumi grinned and, on an impulse, kissed Kakashi on the temple. Then, with a whispered 'Henge!' she was one of their informants, a nondescript farmer, talking about the land as though Kakashi really cared how the crops were doing.

_He's not listening, you know._

_Oh?_

_I thought you didn't want things to get complicated. Look at the boy! He's red as a beet. Any second he's going to faint from all that blood going to his head._

_Oops?_

_And other places…_

_Perverted lizard!_

"Come in," Kakashi called in response to a knock on the door. He sounded a bit strangled, but his face was returning to it's correct color. If she'd been watching as an outsider, Kasumi would have sworn that she had just seen herself come in.

_The girl's quite good at transforming_, Ryuu commented.

_If I didn't know they're just doing it for a joke, this would be creepy. _And it still was, a little. Sakura-Kasumi was flirting in a very forward manner, and knowing that she was only a twelve year old girl made it all the worse. _She's going to have to do better than that if she wants to get that Uchiha boy._

_You'd know, since you almost married one._

_I never would have! And Itachi-kun wouldn't have either._

_Oh, I don't know…_

_What did you do, you great stupid lizard?_

She'd always known that, when she was asleep or unconscious, Ryuu could take control of her body. He didn't generally do it, since it tended to leave her tired and cross afterwards, but if she was knocked out in a fight it could save her life. Sometimes he had used it to spy on people, giving her an opportunity to get some rest and still find out who was getting ready to kill her. Still, he normally told her after. What hadn't he?

_Nothing._ _Calm down and pay attention to what's going on._

The fake Kasumi was now trying to get Kakashi's mask off, teasing him and fiddling with it, while at the same time trying not to move the forehead protector that covered his Sharingan. _Can the Sharingan see through Henge?_

_Who knows? You'll have to ask later._

_I suppose I'll have to rescue the dear boy._

Dear _boy?_

Kasumi chose not to reply. Instead, a quick Water Clone technique, coupled with a very small Hidden Mist, had her slipping out of the room completely unnoticed. Just outside the door she found the two other genin, peering in and watching their poor sensei as he tried to fend off his disguised pupil. Kakashi looked a little flustered, even though he knew it was Sakura. _Or perhaps that's why. It's got to feel at least a bit awkward for him._

She materialized silently behind the two boys.

"Boo." She grabbed their shoulders and dragged them into the room before they had a chance to react. At the noise, Sakura-Kasumi froze, spinning away from Kakashi to stare at the new arrivals. The clone at the table, unnoticed, dissolved.

_What an interesting tableau._

_Shut it, lizard,_ Kasumi returned, without any real venom.

Sakura let go of her transformation, and started talking so fast that Kasumi had trouble making out the words. Some sort of apology or explanation, probably, or maybe a condemnation of Naruto while professing herself and the Uchiha boy to be totally innocent. Kasumi very much doubted that was the case. The other two wouldn't do anything without the Uchiha boy. _Well, maybe they would, but they certainly wouldn't be able to drag him into it_. _And poor Naruto, he just doesn't have a subtle bone in his whole, ridiculous body. He could never think up something like this. He's not mean enough, either._

"We just won't say any more about this," Kasumi said with absolute finality. She gave the two boys a slight push towards their beds, and left the room.

It was late, and they had an early start the next day, but Kasumi was used to having little sleep on the road, and wasn't yet ready to go to bed. She left the inn and made her way to the little garden in the center of the town. There were a few drunks lying about, and some couples wandering around lost to the world, but sitting in the garden, Kasumi still felt alone. She had missed that feeling, these last few days. Normally, she didn't have enough companionship to suit her, but in a way she had grown accustomed to the solitude. _It helps me remember who I am, I suppose._

After a time, she became aware of another presence in the garden. The other person was there in a way that the drunks and the lovers were not: they took no notice of the world around them, so it took no notice of them. But this person was paying attention and, more to the point, was paying attention to her. _A shinobi?_ She quested out with her chakra. It was one of the first skills Ryuu had ever taught her, and she used it as constantly as her eyes, although she rarely paid much attention to what it told her. Humans were, after all, only big bags of water, and a shinobi that could sense water could find any human, no matter how well hidden. The watcher, whoever they were, was about twenty feet away, perched in a tree. _Can they tell I've spotted them?_

And then the person was on the ground in front of her. "It's late for you to be out on your own."

"Isn't it lucky you're here, then?" She smiled.

"Are you coming back now? You should get some sleep."

_Are you sure he's really all that intelligent? I have yet to hear him put together a coherent sentence._

_Ryuu! That's unfair. He's just shy._

_So you say._

"You should too." She rose, and fell into step beside him. "I'm sorry about earlier," she said after a while. Even in the dark, she could see him blushing. "I should have stopped that prank from the outset."

"It's fine."

"You know you'll never hear the end of it from Naruto."

"I'll be fine."

They had reached the door to the room she shared with Sakura. Kasumi turned, and offered him a tentative smile. "Goodnight, Kakashi." She ducked into the room.

_Wimp._


	12. Moon and Tree II

**Moon and Tree (II)**

Your eyes are a mirror  
Your grace fills my soul  
Your heart like a river  
Your tears are my own  
They are my own

Well I feel like I'm walking on hot coals  
And I don't mind getting burned  
But I fear for this soul  
You fell into my life  
The way a star falls from the sky  
Now I'm forever lost in your eyes

_Blue Rodeo_

"Kasumi-san?"

_She's not going to…_

"About last night…"

_Idiot! She said she wouldn't say anything more about it, but you had to go and bring it up, didn't you Sakura? God, you're so annoying._

"Yes, I thought the inn was quite lovely, too. Did you notice how they coordinated the lanterns according to the season? I've always liked the mood that creates." _Eh? That's a serious non-sequitor, even for crazy Kasumi._

"I meant about…"

"Sakura, I know what you meant. I was giving you a chance to let the topic go, but we can discuss it if you really want."

"Well, it's just that…"

Kasumi looked at her with mild interest, in a way that suggested she was going to get bored with this very quickly. Personally, Sasuke was surprised she could show any interest at all. Sakura was just so _boring_, always going on about love and relationships and _talking_. Mostly in the context of her and him, it seemed. _Why can't she take a hint?_

"I'm really, really sorry. We should never have done that."

"No," Kasumi agreed. _But she's not condemning us yet._

"It was really childish, and I just wanted you to know…" Sakura didn't seem able to find the words to express what it was that she wanted Kasumi to know.

"Sakura-chan, there is nothing that needs to be explained. You did something silly without thinking, but no one got hurt. And before you start talking again, think for a moment. What if I, or someone else, came to you disguised as Sasuke? And don't give me that look, Uchiha boy, we both know she has a crush on you."

Sasuke grimaced when Kasumi gave his ear a playful tug. It wasn't so much that he didn't want people talking about Sakura's crush on him - it was a bit annoying but it didn't bother him that much, and seeing her blush when someone mentioned it made up a little for how annoying she was - but more the fact that someone had once done just what she said.

_It had been their first day together as a team. He had been so sure, so confident… and then Naruto had tied him up and used Henge-no-jutsu to impersonate him to Sakura. At least Naruto had had an upset stomach that day, or the tensions on their team would be even worse than they already were._

"Sasuke-kun… you knew?" Sakura sounded a bit breathless. _Great, now she's going to think I'm playing hard to get or something stupid like that._

"Of course he knew. Even though the Uchiha's have a tendency to be blind to what's right under their noses." _There she goes, mentioning _that man… "Or I could go to Naruto as you," Kasumi went on to Sakura as though totally unaware of the inner turmoil she caused Sasuke every time she mentioned the Uchihas or, more specifically, the only other remaining Uchiha. _It's not like she can't know how I feel about him._

"Oh no!"

Kasumi's grin was just the smallest bit mean. "I don't think he'd mind. But you wouldn't like that, would you, Sakura-chan? Or Baby Uchiha…" she interrupted his reverie. "I could come to you as Naruto." Now her grin was positively malicious.

For a moment, Sasuke was choking on words as he tried to deny what she'd said. "That's disgusting!" he managed at last. "Never, never in a million years…"

"Calm down, Little Uchiha," Kasumi said, giving his ear another playful tug. "I'm sure you don't feel that way about Naruto. I'm sure you like him as a friend and teammate…" she glanced up to where Naruto was filling Kakashi's ear with chatter, "when he isn't really pissing you off, I mean, but you haven't given any indication that you feel _that _way about him." She leaned down to whisper in his ear. "But if you do, you might want to tell him sooner or later."

_Don't lose it, don't lose it… _"That's disgusting!" _Why can't I think of anything else to say? It's just so, so, so gross!_

"I see. Naruto!" Kasumi called. The blond turned to face her, trying to walk backwards to keep up with Kakashi as he did. Within seconds he was flat on his ass in the dirt. "Sasuke wanted me to tell you…" _Get her! _"… that he's in love with you." Sasuke tackled her, but too late. "He couldn't keep it a secret any longer," Kasumi finished cheerfully from her place in the dirt, with Sasuke sitting on top of her desperately trying to get her to shut up.

"I am not," Sasuke said loudly. Sakura and Naruto were both bright red, silent as they tried to figure out what to say to Kasumi's pronouncement. Kakashi-sensei was looking on serenely, but Sasuke thought he detected a hint of a smile behind the man's mask. _Go on, laugh, _he thought savagely. _Half the village thinks you're gay, anyway. _Although they certainly wouldn't after they saw the way the man looked at Kasumi. It was sickening… _and completely besides the point. She… she… how dare she!_

"Are you going to let me up, Baby Uchiha? You're heavy." Kasumi was giggling a little bit, but otherwise nearly as calm as Kakashi. Not like Naruto, who had decided that the situation called for some good swearing at the world in general, or Sakura, who had come to the conclusion that this was somehow Naruto's fault, and was screaming at him and getting ready to bash him a good one.

"And if I decide to sit here a while longer?"

"We risk missing dinner at the inn. The one we're staying at tonight came highly recommended. Especially the pork dumplings."

_Stupid, idiotic… is food all she can think of at a time like this? _He stood up, grudgingly, but didn't offer to help her up. She ignored him anyway, and sprang lightly to her feet. Then she walked off, and Kakashi-sensei followed her, leaving the three genin to bring up the rear, still bickering.


	13. Desperado

**Desperado**

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?  
You been out riding fences for so long now  
Oh, you're a hard one  
But I know that you've got your reasons  
These things that are pleasin' you  
Can hurt you somehow  
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger  
Your pain and your hunger, they're drivin' you home  
And freedom, oh freedom, well, that's just some people talking  
Your prison is walking through this world all alone

_The Eagles_

_This woman is amazing._ As quickly as the thought had come, Kakashi quashed it. They would finish the mission and Kasumi would move on, and it would be for the best. The people Kakashi cared for a tendency to die, often just after he'd admitted his feelings, even just to himself. He had a feeling that, if he spent too much more time with her, Kasumi would become one of those people he cared for deeply. _Better that I never see her again than she died. I couldn't live if something happened to her. Did I just…? I'm in so much trouble._ Kakashi wanted to groan aloud, but the emotional discipline he'd imposed on himself from an early age prevented him. To keep his mind off his own troubles, he decided to focus on those of his students.

_And so quickly, the situation is reversed. Instead of Naruto being in love with Sakura, who is in love with Sasuke, it's Sakura in love with Sasuke, who is in love with Naruto. And instead of a rivalry between Naruto and Sasuke, there's one between Naruto and Sakura. On her end, anyway. I think Naruto is just afraid she'll beat him up for stealing her 'one true love.' What a bunch._

"How long were you planning that?"

When Kasumi turned to look at him, her silver hair flew up about her, strands lightly brushing his cheek before settling to swing behind her. "Would you believe me if I said it just came to me?"

"No."

She made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a sigh. "A couple of days ago, actually. I hadn't meant to do it, but…"

"They deserved it?"

"Yes." She turned to look back at the three squabbling genins. "It's time they learned that their fondest dream and their worst nightmare are scarcely a breath apart."

_Did she read my mind? I love this woman… no! No, I can't!_

They walked in silence for a time. When Kasumi broke it, she spoke so softly he thought he hadn't heard. "Kakashi, I'm sorry."

_What could she possibly be sorry for? She's the best thing that ever happened to me. No! No, that way she'll die. _Through the fog of years, Obito's voice drifted back to him. "_Take care of Rin."_ "There's nothing to be sorry for."

She visibly hesitated, then said, "If the dream becomes a nightmare…"

He moved to brush her cheek with his hand, but stopped. He dropped his hand, not meeting her eyes. He felt the brush of her fingers against his own, light as a butterfly's touch, and then gone as though it had never been.

"Kasumi." Sakura had come up behind them, leaving the two boys to pretend to ignore each other while sending surreptitious death looks at each other. The girl's voice was calm and decisive, as though nothing had happened. "What's it like being a kunoichi in the Water Country?"

"Ah, well…" Kasumi dropped back to walk with Sakura, and her words quickly faded from Kakashi's hearing, even though she only walked a few steps behind him.

_She graduated before Momochi Zabuza_, Kakashi recalled. _So she killed a classmate. Without chakra? Or with a kind that no one could even see? Which would be worse? Someone so powerful you can't even comprehend, or someone capable of killing with their bare hands? But that must have been more than a dozen years ago. She would have been one of the first kunoichi to receive the same training as a boy, and she would have been taught the same ways as the old kunoichi as well. Singing, music, flower arranging… the arts of the kunoichi. She's a strange mix: the grace of the kunoichi, the strength of the dragon. She's beautiful, is what she is. No, I can't do this!_

With an inward groan, Kakashi resigned himself to a long, silent walk filled only with arguing with himself.


	14. Vivo Per Lei

**Vivo Per Lei**

Vivo per lei che spesso sa  
Essere dolce e sensuale  
A volte picchia in testa ma  
E un puguo che non fa male

I live for her who often knows  
How to be sweet and sensual  
Sometimes she stuns you but  
It is a blow that never hurts

_Andrea Bottcelli_

"Aren't we there yet?"

Kasumi hid her grin. She hardly felt the drizzle that had been falling all day, but Naruto was soaked, and grumpy because of it. "The rain is much worse in the Rain Country," she assured him. "You've never been there?"

"So?"

"Nah, don't take offense. I was just asking."

"Kasumi-san, how can it be so wet in the Rain Country? It's in between the Earth Country and the Wind Country, which are both really dry." _Ah, so Sakura can overcome her anger at Naruto when she's curious enough. And for a girl whose head seems to be filled with fluff and boys, it's an intelligent question._

"I have no idea. But it is. _Very _wet," she added, ruffling Naruto's wet hair. "Perhaps we'll look for some coats for you three in the next village. You won't be of use to anyone if you all catch colds."

"Is that why all those Hidden Rain guys wore big coats and hats?"

"It's one reason, yes. It's generally much colder in the Rain Country than in the Water Country, although it never snows there, as it does in some regions of the Water Country. Whatever the reason, the rainforests of the Rain Country have plants that can grow nowhere else."

"Didn't you know that, Sakura-chan?" Naruto teased.

"Idiot!" _Here we go again._

The coats, when they bought them in the next town, got mixed reactions. Saskue put his on as though he didn't care, but Kasumi noticed that he was a bit more relaxed now that he was, if not drier, at least a little bit warmer. Naruto wore his with obvious glee, pretending alternately to be a Rain-nin and a secret agent.

But Sakura… "I can't wear that! How will anyone know what I look like?"

To that, Sasuke made a face, Kakashi looked puzzled and, as expected, Naruto came out with an inane, "But Sakura-chan, why does that matter?"

Kasumi had to giggle. Sakura wouldn't have been completely out of place among the kunoichi that she had grown up with. "Sakura-chan, that's part of the point," she told the girl quietly. "Otherwise your dress will get even more soaked, and everyone will know _exactly _what you look like. Now put your coat on, there's a good girl."

She looked around. With the heavy coats, the genins could almost pass for local children, as long as they took care to hide their forehead protectors. That could be important, once they got to the rainforests: there would no doubt be ninjas there who had brought their country's feuds with them, and no few Rain-nin who weren't too fond of Konoha ninja at present. But Kakashi… "Kakashi, put your coat on."

"It seems like hiding."

"It _is _hiding." She took the coat out of his unresisting hands and put it on him, much the way she had helped the littlest children in the orphans' residences back in the Hidden Mist Village. "Besides, we can't have you getting sick either. And I'm sorry, but that forehead protector is just too obvious."

"And the sharingan isn't?"

_Ah yes, the sharingan. Copy-ninja Kakashi. Like Itachi-kun, but not. _Suddenly decisive, she dug in her bag for her scarf. It was light and wispy, as were so many of the things owned by the kunoichi of old, but for all that was surprisingly opaque. She'd never worn it: the point was to hide and suggest all at once, and she'd always thought that was a bit stupid. If she was going to hide, it was because she didn't want anyone to see her, not because she wanted to flirt. On the other hand, it served just as well as a bandage, or for tying someone up, so she'd kept it with her.

He didn't seem inclined to take the forehead protector off by himself, so with a small sigh she reached up to do it for him. In a way, it was annoying how he just stood there like a block of wood. On the other hand, it gave her the chance to touch him, and be close to him. _I'm pathetic_, she thought resignedly.

When the forehead protector was off, she found herself staring into a pair of eyes that at once scared her and comforted her. His right eye was the same cool grey it had always been, sweet and understanding and calm, just like Kakashi himself. But his left eye…how many times had she sat with Itachi-kun, and looked up into a pair of those strange red eyes with their swirling black dots? _Itachi-kun… _It was like seeing them both at once.

And yet, not quite. She couldn't have said what it was about Kakashi's sharingan, but it was somehow warmer, kinder than Itachi's had been. _Not everyone's eyes are the same, even if they're the same color, _she reminded herself.

She began to wrap his head in the scarf, making sure his eye was well covered. At the same time, she did her best to capture the stray strands of his hair and trap them under the scarf. _It's like dandelion fluff_, she thought, a bit distractedly. When she was finished she handed him one of the straw hats commonly worn in the Rain Country. When he'd put it on, the few grey strands that had escaped the scarf only served to make him look old, rather than like the Hidden Leaf's Copy Ninja.

"Hats on, everyone," she said, hoping her voice didn't give away how shaken up she was from being so close to Kakashi. "After tonight, it's all camping. And the inn we're headed to has hot springs."

"Hot springs!" Naruto cried excitedly, and with that excited, skipping-run of his, led them back out into the rain.


	15. Baby Blue

**Baby Blue**

She looked so much like a lady  
But she was so much like a child  
A devil when she held me close  
An angel when she smiled  
She always held it deep inside  
But somehow I always knew  
She'd go away when the grass turned green  
And the sky turned baby blue

_George_ _Strait_

Sakura loved hot springs. She loved the way the warmth worked its way through her skin, making her feel pleasantly heavy and relaxed. She love how, afterwards, she felt as though her skin was glowing. And most of all, after a week on the road, she loved how they were a chance to get clean.

Still, going to the hot springs with her team had always been a trial. Most of the time, it meant she was on her own, listening to Naruto's happy chatter through the wall that separated the men and women. It was nice to have Kasumi-san as company, although she could tell the young woman was not very comfortable in the hot springs, despite how being around water normally seemed to relax her. She'd come out of the bath house wrapped in a heavy bath coat, and had blushed very red when she eventually slipped into the water. She wouldn't meet Sakura's eyes when talking to her, either. _Even Hinata isn't this shy! _Sakura thought. _You'd never think a little thing like bathing could embarrass someone like Kasumi-san so much._

Above the murmur of the other bathers on both sides of the fence, Sakura suddenly heard Naruto's voice ring out. "Eh, eh, Kakashi-sensei! Stop trying to peek at Kasumi-chan! Pervert!"

Sakura felt herself go red from fury. Naruto really was infuriating! And now he was embarrassing them all. She glanced over to where Kasumi-san was sitting. The woman had gone even redder than before, and her eyes were squeezed tightly shut. As though she felt Sakura's eyes on her, Kasumi opened her eyes and offered the younger girl a tentative smile. "I'm okay."

"Naruto won't be when I'm done with him," Sakura promised.

Kasumi's smile grew a little. "Thank. But it's okay, I'll take care of it." Her eyes fell closed, and it seemed to Sakura that the woman was at once not all there, and more there than she had been previously. A second later her smile grew again, this time taking on an element very like Sasuke-kun's characteristic smirk. "Got him," she whispered.

She made a pair of hand seals - strange ones that Sakura had never seen before - and suddenly screams started on the other side of the wooden fence.

"Aaiii! Onee-chan! You got _me_! You got the wrong person, onee-chan, let me down!" There was a pause, and then, "What are you looking at, pervert? Don't look at me!"

Then Sasuke-kun's voice. "I'm not looking at you, teme! But anyone would think you wanted me to, hanging up there like that!"

"Liar! You're a disgusting…"

Sasuke-kun's furious voice interrupted him. "I'm not in love with you!"

The silence, from both sides of the fence, which had been growing throughout the exchange, became absolute at this furious pronouncement. Sakura felt her mouth fall open in shock. Around her, she could see the other women exchanging surprised looks, then lean close together and start whispering furiously.

"What did you do?" Sakura asked quietly, her eyes wide.

Kasumi-san giggled a little, for a moment forgetting her own embarrassment as she reveled in that of the two genin. "I just made the water pick Naruto-kun up and turn him upside down. I had no idea..." she was giggling harder now, "that he and Sasuke would still be fighting about earlier." _This is the terrifying kunoichi with a demon inside her? She giggles like a little kid who's just pulled off a prank._

Sakura sighed. "They'll keep fighting about it until one of them almost gets killed. Maybe even after that." She paused for a minute, wondering if she should mention the trick Kasumi-san had played on the three of them. "I was really mad about that, too," she said at last.

"I'm sorry about that. But it was an important lesson."

_A lesson?_ "Oh?"

"You have to understand, as shinobi, sometimes our fondest dreams and our worst nightmares are almost the same. Sometimes they are the same. All it takes is a breath, a few words, and things can be completely turned around."

"But why did you have to teach it that way?" She wasn't really angry, not anymore, but it hurt to think that Kasumi-san, a woman she liked and respected, would manipulate her and her team that way, even for a lesson.

Kasumi-san closed her eyes, and Sakura thought she detected a faint blush on the woman's cheeks. "That was partly retribution. Sakura, that trick you played on Kakashi…" she sighed. "I can count the people I've ever been close to on one hand and still have fingers left over. Almost everyone Kakashi has ever been close to has been killed." She opened one eye, and fixed Sakura with a stare that seemed to drill through the young kunoichi's skin right to her soul. "For that reason, what you three did was very inappropriate."

Sakura returned the deep blue-gray stare as best as she could. "That was your dream, wasn't it?"

Kasumi-san didn't answer, but closed her eye and let herself sink farther under the water.

_I'm in love with Sasuke-kun, but he doesn't care about me, _Sakura thought sadly as she relaxed in the water, closing her eyes to fully enjoy the warmth. _But Kasumi-san and Kakashi-sensei love each other, but refuse to admit it because they're afraid that if they do, something terrible will happen. That's so sad! _Later, she couldn't have said if it was steam from the hot springs or tears that made her cheeks wet.


	16. Name II

**Name (II)**

And now we're grown up orphans  
That never knew their names  
We don't belong to no one  
That's a shame  
But if you could hide beside me  
Maybe for a while  
And I won't tell no one your name  
And I won't tell 'em your name

You grew up way too fast  
And now there's nothing left to believe  
And reruns all become our history  
A tired song keeps playing on a tired radio  
And I won't tell no one your name  
I won't tell 'em your name

_Goo_ _Goo Dolls_

"Why do we have to set up the tents? Why can't you help?"

_Jeez, why is that idiot always whining? Of course they aren't going to help. They're jonin, we're genin. Therefore, we get the grunt work, they get the glory_, Sasuke thought to himself in annoyance. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but it wasn't the work that was making him grumpy: it was the rain. He'd read a lot of books, where the tragic - yet sensitive - hero loved the rain, because it reflected his mood, or something stupid like that. Not that he would admit reading those kind of books to anyone, ever. For his part, Sasuke hated the rain: it was wet, and cold. He'd take a sunny day over the rain anytime. Kasumi, on the other hand, seemed to adore the rain. Then again, she was from the Water Country, so she had to be used to it at least.

The coat helped, much as he hated to admit it. He didn't like going around without the symbol of his clan displayed proudly on his back, but he even if he'd had one, he wouldn't have thought to bring a big heavy coat like this from home. It slowed his movements a little - which was worrisome, but unavoidable - but he'd take that as a trade-off for being cold and wet any day. The only downside of the coat was that he had to admit, even if just to himself, that Kasumi had been right, and that she wasn't necessarily a horrible person.

Although she had certainly made things awkward between him and his teammates…

That wouldn't have bothered Sasuke in the least, not so long ago. He'd always thought he worked better on his own, and in those first few days together as a team, it had certainly seemed that the other two just kept getting in his way. But after that first trip to the Wave Country, when he'd nearly died, he'd had to admit that sometimes they could be useful. Well, Naruto could, at any rate. Sakura was just annoying.

Except that now Kasumi had made those relationships - subtle and strange as they were - complicated and just downright impossible. And all with a few little words. Now he couldn't even glance - no, not even glare - at Naruto without the idiot going into a rant about how he, Sasuke, was in love with him, Naruto, and how that was just sick. It didn't matter that Kasumi had come right out and said she was "only kidding, honestly Naruto-kun, can't you take a joke," the blond boy still went into a fit if Sasuke came within ten feet of him.

He wouldn't have minded the imposed distance from his teammate - Naruto could be even more annoying than Sakura, at times - if not for one thing: tents. They had two of them: one for three people, one for two. No matter how Sasuke divided up the group, it looked like he was going to be stuck with Naruto. Which, knowing his teammate, would occur to the other boy in five… four… three… two…

"Hey, hey! Kakashi-sensei! I'm not sleeping in the same tent as that freak! He's got to sleep with the girls, since he is one."

"Idiot!" was Sakura's contribution, right before she punched Naruto.

The jonin looked up from where he had been crouched by the fire, cooking supper with an expression that suggested he'd never done such a thing before. _But he must have, right? Even he was a genin at one point._

"Calm done, Naruto," was all he said. _As though that's ever been enough to shut Naruto up._

Kasumi looked up from where she was crouched next to Kakashi. "If you three are finished, supper's ready." Alone of the five of them, she was as dry as though she'd spent the day sitting inside instead of trudging through the rain and mud. Once he'd noticed it, earlier in the day, Sasuke had watched for how she did it. _But she didn't do anything._ The water had just seemed not to touch her. Now he thought of it, the fire wasn't hissing the way it should be in the rain, either. _Is she really that powerful?_

"You know what this reminds me of?" Sakura said quietly while they were eating. The others had been too absorbed in their food to listen very much to her attempts at conversation so far. "The Forest of Death."

Sasuke closed his eyes. _Why did she have to mention that? _The very thought of the second test of the chuunin exam made the curse seal on his neck sting. And when the curse seal stung, he remembered the times he'd used it: when it had worked, and when it hadn't been enough, and how Naruto had been the strong one instead. All in all, the chuunin exam was not something he liked to hear mentioned.

"What was the chuunin exam like for you, Kasumi-san?" Sakura continued.

_I never thought of that._ Often, it seemed like the jonins and chuunins he knew had always had that rank: he never thought of the exams they must have gone through to achieve them. Kakashi had never mentioned his exam, although Sasuke knew he had become a chuunin at a very young age. _Even younger than that man._

"You must have tested about the same time as…" _come on, you can say it… _"Itachi."

Kasumi looked down. "A year earlier, actually." She stirred her stew pensively. "It's probably one reason Kisame-senpai was so suspicious of me."

"When did you become a jonin?" Sakura wanted to know.

"Just before I turned twelve. I suspect Kisame-senpai sent for Itachi-kun almost immediately after."

"Eh? You became a jonin when you were eleven?" Naruto demanded. "Even Kakashi-sensei didn't become one until he was thirteen."

_Idiot._

"Every village tests jonin on a different basis," Kasumi said, in a way that indicated she didn't want to discuss how the Hidden Mist evaluated its shinobi.

"What was your chuunin exam like?" Sakura asked, obviously keen to continue her probing for more information about their companion.

Kasumi sighed. "If I tell you three, do you promise to go to bed right after? The real work on this mission starts tomorrow."

"We promise, we promise," Naruto said. "Come on, let's go sit in the tent where it's dry."

By the time the others caught up to him, after clearing up the fire and the dishes, he was already tucked into his sleeping bag and squirming with impatience.

"Alright," Kasumi sighed. "My chuunin exam."


	17. The Real Life II

**The Real Life (II)**

But I woke up to the real life  
And I realized it's not worth running from anymore  
When there was nowhere left to hide I found out  
That nothing's real here, but I won't stop now until I find  
A better part of me

I let those hard days get me down  
And all the things I hate got in my way  
I could've screamed without a sound  
I found myself silenced by those things they say

_Three Doors Down_

She was nine years old, a wet-behind-the-ears rookie fresh out of the Ninja Academy. The Hidden Mist village wasn't fond of the three man teams espoused by so many of the other villages, but they were often required for the exams, so they made a half-hearted effort. It was rare to send a full team to an exam, though, and candidates from different groups were simply lumped together based on who was ready.

Still, there were only so many jonin instructors for all the genin, so some kind of grouping had to be done. The problem for Kasumi was that no one wanted a nine year old girl with hardly any chakra and a tendency to burst into tears at the sight of blood. Why, she'd been sick for almost a week after she'd killed her opponent in the Academy's final exam.

"_You were afraid of blood?" Naruto asked, incredulously._

_Kasumi rolled her eyes at being interrupted so early in her story, but was careful to keep the irritation out of her voice. "What is it like for you after you use the Kyubi's chakra, Naruto-kun? That's what I thought. For Ryuu to take control of my body puts me under immense strain, and even more when he channels chakra. It takes less out of me now, but if he had used any more that first time, the shock might have killed me. Now, will you be quiet and let me finish?"_

"_Sorry, onee-chan."_

The Misokage didn't particularly care about the preferences of the instructors, though. The rules were the rules, and they said every instructor needed at least three students so that the numbers would balance out. Even though she was a rookie, Kasumi was put on a team with a pair of older shinobi, whose third teammate had been killed in a recent chuunin exam.

Gozu and Meizu, the 'Demon Brothers,' had little time for their young teammate, and the jonin instructor even less. He would normally meet his team before dawn, and set Kasumi a training task, such as throwing kunai at targets. When he returned after sunset, he would expect to find her still practicing. He would spend his days training his two more promising candidates.

Still, those days training alone were not wasted. Had anyone cared to watch, they would have seen Kasumi talking to herself for most of the day, fumbling through strange jutsus according to the instructions of a teacher no one else could see or hear. She practiced the standard jutsus, too, in an effort not to raise suspicion.

_You're ready for the chuunin exam_¸ Ryuu told her one day about ten months after she had become a genin. As far as Kasumi was concerned, she could have stayed a genin for the rest of her life. But being an underling was not something Ryuu would tolerate, and so Kasumi went to her instructor and asked to be allowed to test.

He wanted to say no, of course. But as with the Academy exams, there were spaces to be filled so that more promising young shinobi's could have their chance. It was the Misokage who made the final decision, looking down on the young genin and her teacher from his throne-like seat. "Kasumi-chan, listen to my words. You go to this exam not as a candidate for the Hidden Mist village, but as a third member of a team. You will stay alive and make it through the tests for as long as your teammates need you, and then you will have the decency to die an honorable death. Your lack of power is an insult to the Village of the Hidden Mist. You now have the opportunity to give something back to the village. Anoshi-san will instruct you so that you will make it as far as you must."

She bowed, and accepted his words, and with Anoshi-sensei and his team she traveled to the Thunder Country where the exam was to be held. To say that Anoshi-sensei was pleased to have her would have been a complete lie. He was the kind of man who cared for nothing except the rules, and sending this little girl to her death offended his sense of what a shinobi should do. It was not so much the likelihood of her death which bothered him as the idea that someone who was unworthy was being allowed to take the chuunin exam. In contrast, there could be no one worthier than her two teammates: the Hidden Mist's number one rookie and his best friend, the son of the Misokage himself.

But worse than a shinobi who was without honor, to Anoshi-sensei, was one who did not follow orders, so he instructed Kasumi in the ways of the chuunin exam, its tricks and quirks and psychological games. She had only to survive until the end of the second round: her best course of action would be to be mortally wounded in the second test, so that she could not interfere with her teammates in the third.

When the first test came, Kasumi was terrified. She was the youngest in the room by three years, and there was not a ninja in the room that did not stand a head and shoulders taller than her. Their glares told her that they did not appreciate being grouped with someone like her, and the look the examiner sent her was the worst of all: it was like she didn't deserve to exist.

But it didn't matter how scared Kasumi was. Ryuu was there every second, coaxing, encouraging, bullying, and generally pushing her through each terrifying moment. And it didn't matter at all how much the other candidates glared, or the examiner used his psychological techniques against her: there was not a human born who could scare the dragon even for a moment. It was his bloody-minded determination to _show them all_, more than anything else, which got Kasumi through that first test. Without Ryuu, she knew she would never have managed the last part.

The candidates were called, one by one, out of the general testing room and into a small, dimly lit cell. Four masked jonin waited there, holding bared katanas, and the dark-faced examiner with an injured bird. Kasumi walked in, shaking so she could hardly stand. But something of the dragon's spirit had leaked through to her own, and when she faced the examiner it was without flinching or looking away.

"Kill it," he told her, as the masked jonin spread out to surround her.

It was a tiny bluebird which the examiner could have held cupped in a single hand. It took both hands for the little girl to lift the bird and cradle it to her, heedless of the blood that stained her shirt and hands.

The bird screamed in pain and terror as she held it, but gradually quieted as it was handled gently and carefully. Kasumi put her head down to it, allowing it to rub its tiny head against her cheek. When it was finally calm, Kasumi kissed its tiny head, and flooded its little brain with water. The bird was dead in half a second, too quickly for it to suffer.

It would have been harder if the bird had been healthy, if those men hadn't hurt it and others just to test the emotional strength of children. It would have been much harder if she had been a healer, and could have saved it. But the only thing Kasumi could do for the tiny injured creature, which would die before the day was through regardless of what she did, was offer it love and care in its last moments, and a swift and painless death.

She wanted to scream, to cry, to hurt these men as they had hurt the harmless little bird. But the ageless killer inside her refused to give these men that satisfaction, and as Kasumi always did when she didn't know what to do, she trusted Ryuu.

She put the little bird gently on the table and looked the examiner in the eye with a gaze as cold and merciless as that of the beast inside her. Inside, she was a wreck as she turned and walked away. She was angry at the examiner, at the ninjas of the Hidden Mist, at the little bird that hadn't been clever enough to avoid the trap. She was afraid, sad, a hundred other things which she couldn't have put a name to… but all anyone saw was a tiny, plain little scrap of a girl with blood on her pigtails who walked out of that dimly lit room with her back straight and her head high, her earlier fears forgotten.

When the Mizokage's son commented that it was a good thing she hadn't chickened out and messed up his chances, she walked past him without even a glance.


	18. Landing in London

**Landing in London**

If this keeps me away much longer  
I don't know what I would do  
You've got to understand it's a hard life  
That I'm going through

And when the night falls in around me  
And I don't think I'll make it through  
I'll use your light to guide the way  
'Cause all I think about is you

_Three Doors Down_

After the death of the bird, it was as though Kasumi's fear evaporated. Killing the tiny creature had affected her in a way that the death of Umi-chan, the boy from the Academy exams, hadn't. If she had been pressed for a reason - "_I'm going to explain in a moment, Naruto-kun, if you'll give me a chance"_ - it would be because Umi-chan had been about to kill her, whereas the little bird had only been unlucky in where it chose to perch that morning. Killing a harmless creature for that alone was wrong.

That didn't seem to bother either of Kasumi's teammates, though. The Mizokage's son, in particular, was positively jovial that he had passed the test.

"That is why you almost didn't pass," Anoshi-sensei said severely. "They do not want joy in killing. They want cold, unthinking competence. A shinobi is only a tool, and killing is what it is used for. Joy in that work will spoil the tool."

"_Anoshi-sensei sounds like a bit of a tool."_

"_Shut up, idiot!"_

The second test was a survival challenge for the teams…

"_Like ours."_

"_Sakura, don't interrupt!"_

"_Shut up, idiot. You're the one that keeps interrupting."_

"_Then I won't go into much detail about the test itself, alright? Anyway…"_

…with the point being to collect scrolls from other teams and make it to the finish point within three days. The high mountain terrain gave the shinobi from the Water Country a natural disadvantage, for compared to these soaring peaks the mountains of the Water Country were only big hills. Most of the teams had the disadvantage, in fact, the only exceptions being the candidates from the Hidden Cloud, the Hidden Rock and, to a lesser extent, the Hidden Leaf.

Kasumi did as she had been instructed, and worked hard to keep up and help her teammates in what small ways she could. When it came to the fights, though, she stayed to the side, fighting only to defend herself on the rare chance that one of the members of the opposite team thought to prove themselves by attacking a child who was obviously so much weaker.

The exception came during the evening of the second day. The three Water-nin's were very close to the finish point, but had yet to acquire the second scroll they needed. The sun was starting to disappear behind the peaks when they met a group of Rock-nin's. In the ensuing battle, the candidates from the Earth Country became trapped under a rock avalanche that the two boys from the Hidden Mist set off by slamming water into the hillside above them.

If they had asked Kasumi - which of course they didn't - she would have said she thought it was a stupid move. The other candidates could have been killed or - more to the point for her teammates - the scroll lost under the rocks. But over the last two days, Kasumi had begun to wonder if the two boys didn't _want _to kill the others they battled.

The Rock-style ninjas, defeated, handed over the scroll. They were close enough that they could make it to the finish point tonight, Kasumi knew, and be done a day early. Surely that would look good for her two teammates.

But even as she opened her mouth to suggest it, the Mizokage's son began a series of hand seals the Kasumi recognized. She would never bother with the jutsu herself - she could do something ten times as big with only three seals, although she would never tell her teammates that - but it was not one that should be used here, against these opponents. Trapped as they were under the rocks, the young candidates would be drowned by the flood of water summoned by the Water Explosion technique. Kasumi watched with growing horror as the other boy egged his friend on, eager to see "those cocky little bastards" drowned.

Anger and instinct took over in Kasumi, and within seconds both the boys were stuck as full of senbons as porcupines. The needles, aimed with pure murderous rage at the cruelty of the two boys, had struck home in a dozen lethal points.

While Kasumi was aghast at what she had just done, she let Ryuu direct her, unresisting, to pick up the two scrolls and both her comrades. They were heavy, but with her chakra to help lift their unconscious forms and the utter numbness that had taken hold of her, Kasumi wouldn't have noticed if they had weighed twice as much.

Anoshi-sensei was horrified when he met her at the finish point. Although the two boys were taken to the hospital immediately, and given all the best treatment that the medical ninjas of the Hidden Cloud had to offer, they both died that night, each within an hour of the other. In accordance with the laws of the Water Country, however, he did not say anything, and only watched in silence as Kasumi trained for and then entered the final matches.

The final matches were of little interest to Kasumi. She fought only to stay alive through them, and emerged a chuunin who was only of interest because she had, somehow, survived the exam.


	19. Darling Pretty

**Darling Pretty**

Just like a castaway  
Lost upon an endless sea  
I saw you far away  
Come to rescue me

Cast away the chains, darling pretty  
Cast away the chains, away behind  
Take away my pain, my darling pretty  
And the chains that once were yours and mine

There will come a day, darling pretty  
There will come a day when hearts can fly  
Love will find a way, my darling pretty  
Find a heaven for you and I

_Mark Knopfler_

Kasumi watched the three sleeping genins with a slight smile. They had fought through exhaustion to stay awake long enough to hear the end of her story but, almost at the last word, each had finally lost that battle and succumbed to slumber. Now they lay sprawled in a tangle of arms and legs amid the sleeping bags. _Like puppies in a basket_, Kasumi thought. Sakura had her head on Naruto's back, and her legs intertwined with Sasuke's, who was in danger of being kicked in the head by Naruto. They curled together as though it were the most natural thing in the world, their daytime squabbles forgotten in the comforting nearness of their friends.

Even in the dark, she could sense Kakashi's wakefulness. His silhouette inclined its head towards the door of the tent, and she followed him outside into the soft rain, moving as quietly as she could so as not to wake the three children.

"We'll leave them there to sleep, yes?" she said quietly. With the dark and his mask, she couldn't make out his expression; his single visible eye was only a dark hole in his face. "And now you want to know how I became a jonin."

"Ah, well…" He rubbed his hair in that way he had, which Kasumi found so cute, and she smiled to think that she had guessed his thoughts so accurately.

"It isn't nearly as interesting," Kasumi warned, as she led the way to the other tent. He shrugged, and moved to sit on Sakura's sleeping bag.

"Oh no you don't," Kasumi said firmly. Kakashi paused, obviously unsure what she meant. Kasumi held her hand out, palm towards him, a few inches from his chest, and called the water in his clothes out into a ball in her hand. "It wouldn't be fair for you to make a mess of Sakura's things." She dropped the ball of water outside the tent. "_Now _you can sit down," she told him, doing her best to remain firm when he was looking at her with that sweet, slightly bewildered expression. He dropped onto Sakura's laid-out sleeping bag, settling himself back onto his elbows.

_Is he trying to be sexy, stretching out like that? Damn, but he's succeeding._

_You get dumber every day._

_It must be your fault._

_Or his_, the dragon suggested wickedly.

"It isn't hard for a kunoichi to become a jonin in the Water Country," Kasumi began once she'd settled herself on her own sleeping bag. "We aren't really expected to amount to much. If a kunoichi passes the chuunin exam, she's practically guaranteed to become a jonin within a couple of years."

"So they all…?"

"No. It they're content to wait for five or ten years as genin, they can become jonin without even becoming chuunin. I told you, not much is expected of us. For a man to become a jonin in the Water Country requires that he complete a dozen A-rank missions and kill at least five people. A kunoichi chuunin needs only half a dozen B-rank and a single kill." Kakashi's gaze was flat, neither condemning nor approving. Just accepting that this was her story. _I suppose he already knows at least part of this._

"When we returned to the village after the exam, I was required to tell the Council of Elders what happened to my teammates."

"You told the truth."

"Of course. Kakashi, I grew up in the Bloody Mist Village. It didn't matter to them that I had killed my teammates: all that mattered was that I had killed as a shinobi. The records don't show _who _I killed - Mizokage would have tried a lot harder to kill me if he had known, I'm sure - only that I had."

"That's it?" Still no emotion in his voice.

Kasumi sighed. "If it had been any harder, I doubt Kisame-senpai would have brought only one of his Akatsuki friends. He was the senior jonin who reviewed the case of my kills." She knew that to Kakashi, and the others of the Leaf Village, the boys were more than just _kills_, but she had grown up in the Bloody Mist, and sometimes training can overcome natural compassion, if it goes on for long enough. It didn't help that, to Ryuu, the boys hardly even merited the status of _kills_: they were just two more dead, and he had never really come to terms with her insistence on remembering them. "If there was any indication that the boys had fought back, that I'd actually _defeated _another shinobi, I'd probably have the whole of Akatsuki chasing me right now."

His touch on her hand was light and soft. _This would be so much easier if one of you would just break down and tell the other,_ Ryuu commented acidly.

_What would you know about it? _she fired back.

"I suppose you'll need your pajamas," she said to change the subject. She couldn't bring herself to look at him, and felt her cheeks flame so red that she was sure he must have been able to see it, even in the dark.

"I'll get them." He slipped out, back into the rain. While he was gone, Kasumi changed quickly into her own pajamas. They were the simple, serviceable, unisex grey pajamas that everyone in the orphans' halls at Hidden Mist had been given, although rather worn and too short in the sleeve and leg. They had been second hand when she got them, and almost too short, but in all her years since leaving the village she had never bothered to replace them.

She fought to repress the irrational fear of what Kakashi would think when he saw her in them. They were not nearly as revealing as, for instance, the kunoichi dress she wore every day - _provocative_ was the word she generally heard in connection to that stupid garment - but despite that, she felt more naked than normal. Perhaps it was because, however ridiculous the garment was, the dress was the garb of a ninja whereas these… were just pajamas. She lay on her side in her sleeping bag, staring at the dark tent wall.

There wasn't a sound, a poof of smoke, anything; Kakashi was just suddenly behind her, a solid, warm presence that she found herself trusting implicitly. _But how…_ "That jutsu… the Yellow Flash…?"

"Was my teacher," he confirmed, soft amusement coloring his voice. She tried to turn over and look him in the eye, intending to tell him in no uncertain terms what a bad idea it was to sneak up behind someone like that - especially someone with a psychopathic dragon living in their head, kicking up a fuss that anyone would dream of touching _his little girl _without his approval - but his strong arm wrapped around her stomach and held her in place. His other arm slid behind her head, his fingers gently moving her hair out of the way. She slipped her fingers between his where they rested against her stomach.

She felt him shift, and he laid his cheek on top of hers. Instead of the fabric she had expected to feel there was only skin, smooth and soft along a hard jaw line. Tendrils of smoky-white hair, soft as down, brushed across her forehead.

She gave his fingers a squeeze, and his arm tightened in answer, pulling her close to him and holding her tightly. He kissed her lightly on the cheek, a soft, tender kiss that was at once thrilling and soothing. "Go to sleep, Kasumi-hime," he whispered.

And she did, content to be close to him and trust him to worry about the next day, and how they would all get through it alive.


	20. Volverte a Ver

**Volverte a Ver**

Lo unico que quiero es poder regresar  
Poder todas las balas equivar y sobrevivir  
Tu amore s mi esperanza y tu mi municion  
Por eso regresar a tie s mi unica mission

The only thing I want is to be able to return  
To be able to dodge all the bullets and survive  
Your love is my hope and you, my ammunition  
That's why returning to you is my only mission

_Juanes_

She was alone when she awoke, but the smell of cooking breakfast told Kasumi that others weren't far away. It was hard to drag herself out of the warmth of her sleeping bag into the chilly damp of the morning, but by the time she sat across the fire from Kakashi with a big mug of steaming tea in her hands as she waited for the grey skies of the Rain Country to lighten to their daytime drab, she had resigned herself to it. Still, it wasn't so bad: the rain had stopped sometime during the night, and the cheerful fire kept the morning chill away from her toes.

Sasuke was the first to emerge from the tent where the genin had slept the night before, his attempts at affronted dignity marred by the way the hair on one side was flattened where he had slept on it. "How could you leave me there like that?" he asked Kasumi peevishly. _Funny how he blames me and not Kakashi_, she thought with some amusement. _Obviously he's realized that Kakashi wouldn't care about something like that._

Kasumi offered him a smile and a mug of tea. "You were tired, Baby Uchiha. Besides, you looked so cute." She pinched his cheek, knowing she shouldn't be baiting him like this but enjoying herself too much to really care.

"Anyone would think I _liked _them, if they saw that," he grumbled, settling himself on the log next to her. Kakashi passed him a few pieces of bread and cheese with a muttered '_toast'_. The genin gave his instructor a _look_, and speared each piece on a kunai. It was funny to watch him, his brow furrowed in concentration, as he breathed just the right amount of fire onto each piece.

"Does he make you do that a lot?" she asked Sasuke, a teasing note in her voice for Kakashi's benefit.

"All the time," the boy grumbled. Kasumi fought to suppress a giggle. Itachi-kun and Sasuke looked a lot alike, and at times were very alike in other ways too, but she could never imagine Itachi-kun using a jutsu to do something as mediocre as cooking.

Sakura was the next to join them, as Kasumi was enjoying some surprisingly tasty Uchiha-brand cheese toast. _If revenge doesn't work out for him, he could always take up cooking, _she thought wryly.

Luckily, the younger kunoichi had refrained from waking her third teammate up by screaming or punching him, but from the look of her face it had been a near thing. "How dare he?" she hissed. "How dare he come near me when I'm sleeping? I'll kill him!" Her voice was steadily rising in volume.

_She doesn't realize Sasuke slept with them too, _Kasumi realized. _I bet she wouldn't be half so upset if she knew that. _But the boy's hard black gaze stopped the thought of mentioning that little detail even as it entered Kasumi's head.

"Sakura, I swear, if it was anyone else, you wouldn't care half as much," she said instead. "And before you say anything more, I'd like to point out that _you _fell asleep on _him_. You aren't completely blameless."

_You're starting to sound like an old mother hen._

_An old mother hen would be screaming at her for sleeping in the same tent as the boys._

_You know what I mean._

Sakura huffed, but didn't continue her tirade. "Besides," Kasumi continued more gently, "I doubt Naruto even realizes what happened. If you don't mention it, it will be as though nothing happened. The boys won't say anything, will you?" She knew Kakashi wouldn't say anything anyway, but gave Sasuke a very pointed look to make sure he'd understood her. He gave a shrug as though he couldn't care less, but Kasumi knew he'd caught the implications of what she'd said: if he opened his mouth, people would find out where he'd spent the night. _They're so cute._

"Tea, Sakura?" Kakashi offered.

By the time Naruto had stumbled out of the tent, complaining that they hadn't thought to wake him, and they had all had their fill of breakfast, it was full light out. "We're going to split into groups to search for all the plants that Hokage-sama wanted us to collect. Naruto, you go with Kasumi." The boy's obvious excitement to be teamed with her was at once sweet and annoying. "You have the list, Kasumi?" She nodded. A part of her didn't want to leave Kakashi behind today; she was irrationally afraid that, if she let him out of her sight, she would never see him again.

But as ever, there was work to do. "Come on, Naruto-kun, get your coat."

They spent the morning searching through the foliage for the plants the hospital needed. It took a long time, and it wasn't particularly exciting work. Many of the plants they were looking for were small, and grew in patches of larger vegetation, so that each clump of leaves had to be carefully pulled apart and the plants inside examined.

It was early afternoon when Kasumi noticed another presence nearby. She kept silent, expecting Naruto to notice, but the stranger was standing in full view before he did. _Well, at least he's strong_, she thought. Naruto would never be one for stealth. With an inward sigh she rose from her task and offered the man a polite bow.

"Visitors," he said gruffly. "Come far, have you?"

_What an strange person. _And in her travels, Kasumi had met a _lot _of very odd people.

Naruto seemed about to jump into one of his long-winded, egotistical answers, but Kasumi cut him off. "A very long way, sir. From the Wave Country." Naruto looked about to correct her, but she sent him a look that made him suddenly very interested in the plants he was gathering.

"Ah, then you must have lots of news. Please, come eat lunch with me. I do not often have visitors from so far."

The man didn't seem overly threatening, but Kasumi wasn't ready to completely trust him. "That would be very nice," was all she said.

She kept a constant eye on Naruto on the way to the man's house, making sure he wouldn't say anything. She had no reason to think the man was dangerous, but there was a lot of resentment towards the shinobi of Konoha in the Rain Country currently, and years on the road had instilled a natural caution in her.

She kept up a stream of small talk about the weather in the rainforest with the man until they were seated around the table. "The Wave Country," he said at last. "You must have come through the Fire Country, then."

If she denied it, the man would know for certain that she was lying. The only way not to would have been to take a detour through the Thunder Country, and there was no good excuse for that. "Briefly," she admitted. _Well, I did,_ she thought, giving herself the lie.

"The ninja there are having trouble, I hear. And about time, say I!"

Naruto made a sound that was eerily like a growl, and looked ready to jump at the man. Kasumi snapped a hand over his mouth. "Forgive my little brother, sir," she said, offering him her most winning smile. "He hates all shinobi."

"Eh, smart boy. Nothing but trouble, that lazy pack of lay-abouts. Sitting on their fat behinds, getting rich off _our _hard work…" He peered at her suspiciously. "You never said what it was that you did."

She offered another smile, determined that the man know his attitude wasn't intimidating her in the least. "Our mother owns an apothecary," she explained. "Herbs, medicines, spices… normally, one of my uncles or cousins would have come, but they couldn't be spared this year. The fish, you see." She had no idea what could happen to fish that would require the entire group of fictitious family members to stay home, and she hoped he wouldn't ask. "So Mother sent me and my little brother." _As though anyone would really believe we're related._

She eased her hand off Naruto's mouth, hoping he would be willing to just go along with her story. "Ninjas are…" he began. _Apparently not_. She clamped her hand back over his mouth.

"Sorry about him, sir. He wanted to be a shinobi when he was younger… I don't think he's ever given up that dream." She gave Naruto a glare that she hoped the man would interpret as distaste for his dream and not a warning to keep quiet. "But they turned him down, just because we're poor folk and our parents aren't ninjas. It's not fair though, is it? Grandmother thinks that one of our ancestors was a ninja, and we could be just as good as anyone, only they wouldn't listen." Though it wasn't her own story, it was one that Kasumi had heard often enough over the years. People seemed to think that the shinobi had an easy life, and worked to keep them out of the hidden villages so that they wouldn't have to share their ill-gotten gains. It was utter ridiculousness, as anyone who had spent even a little time in a ninja village could attest, but the myth still persisted.

"No, they never do. They never do." He shook his head sadly. "But maybe they'll all wipe each other out, eh?" His grin verged on the psychotic. "I heard tell there was a big disaster down in the Fire Country a few months back, plenty of shinobi killed. Sounds like war's a-brewing." He munched contentedly on a piece of pork. "Some day we may even be free of the whole stinking lot of them."

"I hope it isn't a war," Kasumi told him quietly. His glare dared her to say she didn't think the ninjas deserved to die. "They'll fight without any regard to the people around them. Innocents will be killed, fields burned…" she shrugged helplessly, and the man nodded his understanding. _I wish there were fewer people like him_, Kasumi thought sadly. "I hope it will stay calm until we get home. I couldn't imagine crossing the Fire Country when there are ninjas about. At least we don't have any at home."

"No ninjas, eh? Lucky devils."

All in all, after lunch was finished Kasumi was very glad to take her leave of the man. "What the hell?" Naruto demanded. _At least we're out of earshot._ "We should have beat him up, talking about ninjas like that!"

Kasumi stopped and looked at her young companion. He was trembling with rage, tears brimming in his wide blue eyes. _Oh Naruto-kun, if only you knew the hatred and cruelty man can stoop to. I hope you never learn! _On impulse, she wrapped her arms around him and gave him a tight hug. "That would only have proved him right, Naruto-kun," she told him sadly.

"But, but those things he said! It was horrible!"

"Yes, I know. But remember Naruto-kun, when shinobi fight, the farmers and the townspeople don't see glorious battles. They see burned crops and dead children and destroyed buildings. And they get angry, and they hate the ninjas that protect them." She gave him another hug. "I am sorry you had to hear such things, nii-chan." She searched his face. "But you already knew it in a way, didn't you?" she continued quietly. "Kakashi told me how the villagers hated you because of the Kyuubi. You made such a sacrifice for them, but they were afraid of you, and they hated you." His tears were flowing now, although whether from sadness at the memory or rage, she wasn't sure. "But you don't hate the villagers, nii-chan, and you mustn't hate people like that man. What you are doing is right and important, and you mustn't let their ingratitude make you think otherwise."

"But why?" He sniffled.

_He seems so young. Was I ever so young?_

_No. Not you, not Gaara. But Kyuubi has not tainted his innocence. I am… sorry… for what I have done to you._

_Without you, I would be dead._ It was the closest to an apology that Kasumi had ever received from the dragon, and it amazed her to hear the humility in Ryuu's silent voice.

"Why can't they see that we're only trying to help?" Naruto sniffled again.

She gave him one last hug. "I don't know, nii-chan. I don't know. Come on," she added sadly, "we still have work to do today."


	21. Life

**Life**

How many times have you been pushed around?  
Was anybody there?  
Does anybody care?  
How many times have your friends let you down?  
Was anybody there?  
Did anybody stare?

Oh, life is waiting for you  
So messed up, but we're alive  
Oh, life is waiting for you  
So messed up, but we'll survive

_Our Lady Peace_

They had been in the rainforests almost a week, and Sasuke was getting bored. Sakura seemed entranced with all the properties and uses of the various plants, but as far as Sasuke was concerned, they were all equally boring. At least today the weather was clear, so Kasumi had allowed him to go out without his coat, leaving her own giant garment behind as well. It was liberating to move through the trees so freely, hopping from branch to branch.

Kasumi seemed to be enjoying it too, flitting along next to him with her hair and skirt flying out behind her. Whatever else she was, she was gorgeous, and he envied her the lightness of spirit that she seemed to share with Naruto. When it really came down to it, he much preferred to go with her on these excursions than with Kakashi-sensei. It wasn't that he disliked the jonin instructor; he respected Kakashi a great deal, although he would never admit it to the man. But Kasumi only took one genin with her each day, and when he was left with Kakashi, he had to put up with either Naruto or Sakura, who were as annoying as each other, although in their own way.

Without his Sharingan, he would have missed it: the slight widening of Kasumi's eyes before she appeared beside him and gave him a hard shove into a bush. His instinct was to cry out, but years of training took over, and a second later he was glad it had. Naruto would have yelled, and made Kasumi's act pointless. Perhaps, in staying quiet, he had been successfully hidden from the person Kasumi had - to his shame - apparently spotted before him.

The man was standing on a branch a little ways ahead, so motionless that Sasuke would have thought him a statue if not for the way the breeze played slightly with the hem of his robe. And that robe… it was burned into his memory as though with a hot iron, and like a fresh burn the memory was painful to touch. Deep black with red clouds, it was the robe of the Akatsuki.

Kasumi stopped on a branch about twenty feet from the man. She wasn't directly between him and the figure, but she was close enough to move between them in an instant if she needed to. He was ashamed, hiding in the bushes while she faced the enemy. He might not survive a run in with a member of Akatsuki, but the shame of hiding from a fight was almost as bad as that death would have been. _If anything goes wrong for her, I won't hold back_, he promised himself, surprised at his own vehemence.

Even before the figure removed the straw hat that hid his face and hair, Sasuke knew who it would be. Part of him wanted to run out and kill _that man_, but the rational part knew he was nowhere near ready. If they could avoid this fight, he would make his brother pay for even threatening Kasumi.

He was shocked to see that, when Itachi removed his hat, he was smiling. Even before that dark day, he had rarely seen Itachi smile, especially not this kind and open smile. He'd learned to gauge Kasumi a little over this past week: she was tense, but she would be hiding it well, facing his brother with a smile and eyes that burned ever so slightly golden.

"Itachi-kun?" She sounded shocked, as though she hadn't seen him there until she was so close. As though she hadn't had a second to prepare, and to shove him into this bush.

His brother's smile grew slightly. "Kasumi-chan. Out on a mission?" He didn't seem surprised to see her.

"No. Extended leave from the village."

"You ran away?" That smirk… how he hated that smirk.

"We aren't all missing-nins, Itachi-kun," Kasumi said sharply. "After Momochi Zabuza's attempted coup, Mizokage and the elders felt it… prudent… that I make myself scarce for a few years."

"A weak little kunoichi?" There was less derision in Itachi's voice than Sasuke would have expected. Itachi had never cared for those weaker than himself.

"Just because I'm weaker than you doesn't mean I'm useless," Kasumi snapped. "I'm the strongest kunoichi in over fifty years."

"So?"

"I was the favored prospect to replace Akimi-sama as councilor." Sasuke had never seen Kasumi act so prideful and arrogant before. The Kasumi he had come to know didn't like talking about herself, and less so about her accomplishments. She worked her way around the world by helping in restaurants or fields or on missions, even if they were only C- or D-rank ones. "Another two years and I would have been on the council, despite... despite everything."

"Ah. I hadn't heard."

"That's because you just left." Kasumi sounded really angry now. "One day you were just gone. You never even said goodbye."

"I hadn't meant to be gone long. When I went back a few months later, you were gone."

"Listen to yourself! A few months! And you just expected me to wait around and worry about you, did you?" _It's all an act,_ Sasuke reminded himself.

"Yes." Kasumi's back went straight with indignation at this. "After we were married…"

"Married?" Kasumi broke in.

_What? Married?_

"I assumed you knew. The village elders arranged it."

"I did _not _know," Kasumi spat. "And you never thought to ask me, did you?"

"I thought you knew," Itachi repeated. For the first time, irritation showed through his calm demeanor. "And I couldn't understand it. We were due to be married - and I _didn't _mind, you know - and then…" He was practically growling now. "Seven years, Kasumi-chan. You've hidden yourself from me for _seven years. _I don't know why, or where, but I think I know something of what you've been up to." Sasuke was fairly sure that, when Kasumi went very still at this, it wasn't an act. "You can't hide from these eyes, Kasumi. Bring him out."

_Shit._ He was about to move, but Kasumi's voice stopped him. "No. You know that isn't what this is about, Itachi-kun." This was the Kasumi Sasuke knew: strong, assertive, and not prepared to take even the littlest amount of crap from anyone. "You didn't kill him then, and you _aren't _going to do it now." Her tone suggested he had better not even think of trying.

"You never did understand, Kasumi-chan." Long ago, Sasuke had seen his brother's eyes look tired, a bit sad, angry… but never so haunted. "Only the strongest of the Uchiha could survive. It was one of us, but I didn't know… I thought he might one day surpass me. But I was wrong." His voice was filled with disgust. "He's so weak he needs to hide behind _you_."

Now Sasuke was angry. Again, he prepared to move, to attack his brother, consequences be damned, but again Kasumi's voice forestalled him. "If you move, Baby Uchiha, I will kill you myself. This isn't about you. This is about _Akatsuki_." She spit the word.

Even out of the line of sight, Sasuke could see Itachi's gaze intensify. "Kisame is a suspicious man. It's time you let it go," he snapped.

"How many have you found?" Kasumi demanded, ignoring what Itachi had said. "If you hurt a single one of them, I swear to you, Itachi-kun, I will kill you all."

"You're spouting nonsense again, Kasumi. I'm truly sorry - I thought you loved me - but it will have to be…"

" - Idiot, since when did either of us know what love was?"

"…Tsukuyomi."

An icy ball seemed to form in the pit of Sasuke's stomach. He remembered that technique. The pain, both physical and psychological, had been almost unbearable. He remembered how Itachi had tortured him, making him re-live that dark and horrible day time after time until he screamed for death.

Angry, unthinking, he burst from his hiding place. He sent kunai and shuriken flying ahead of him, and held another kunai at ready, prepared to kill his brother at all costs. "It will end now," Itachi told him calmly as he approached. "And you will see what you could never achieve. _Amaterasu._"

"I will avenge them," Sasuke yelled. Black fire, impossibly dark, was flying towards him. _No, no this can't be the end_. _I have to kill him._

Suddenly he felt an impact in his stomach, driving him to the side and bowling him over. Kasumi, who had been standing frozen under the tsukuyomi had tackled him, knocking him out of the way of the jutsu.

Lying on the tree branch, he found himself staring up at a woman he would swear he had never seen before. Dark fire burned in stripes along her hair, surrounding her in a black halo. Her silver hair glowed against it, and her skin had the white luminescence of the moon against the blackest sky. And her eyes… even Itachi's mangekyo sharingan couldn't cause a fraction of the terror Sasuke felt looking into Kasumi's eyes. He had seen eyes a bit like that once before, when Naruto had been possessed by the Kyuubi during his fight with Gaara, but those eyes had still held a trace of Naruto in them, mixed with the anger and hatred of the Kyuubi. These eyes held none of that - only power in magnitudes he had not imagined existed and an ageless uncaring that would not see him if he and a thousand others died right there. _This is what lives in her head_, he thought in terror. _Those eyes… they belong to the beast she laughs and makes jokes about. How strong is she, really? How strong is _Naruto?

The beast - it was Kasumi's body, but it was as though she had disappeared from it - spoke with the voice of a typhoon, every word carrying the power and fury of hurricane winds and giant waves crashing against cliffs, destroying them and sucking the remains deep into the ocean. Sasuke was fervently glad that, though the beast was staring at him with those terrifying eyes, it did not address him. "You hurt her," it said. The words seemed calm, though the voice that said them was a roar. In a distracted way, Sasuke noticed Itachi's eyes widen. If it had been him the beast was roaring at, he would have pissed himself. "You hurt my princess."

The words came from deep within him - Sasuke could never have spoken if he had consciously tried. "He's mine... to kill." The words came out as a barely audible croak.

He felt the beast's attention fix on him, and he found that what he had thought was terrifying before now seemed almost pleasant. Now that the beast actually saw him, he thought he would die from the intensity of its attention.

"Baby Uchiha, she calls you," it said, and for an instant Sasuke imagined he saw a touch of _something _in those eyes. It wasn't love, nor respect, but Sasuke knew that, for now, the beast would not kill him because it would not dare upset Kasumi. _His princess._ "You have had seven years, Avenger. I give you three more. And then this human is _my prey_." The beast turned to face Itachi. Looking at its back, Sasuke saw steam coming from the patches of fire that burned along its back, as though water surrounded it. "Do not think you can control the Biju, human. Remember." As it said the word, blood seemed to burst from Itachi's entire body. An ocean of blood, more than Sasuke could remember ever seeing before. _It said it wouldn't kill him_, he thought distractedly, morbidly fascinated despite his terror.

Not that he would blame it if it had. He had been prepared to try and kill Itachi for even thinking of harming Kasumi. The beast would have been right to kill the man, regardless of Sasuke's vow of revenge.

The blood-soaked body of the other ninja was thrown from the tree branch where it had stood for the entire encounter. The beast bent and grabbed Sasuke by his collar, then took off through the trees, dragging him behind. He wanted to scream in pain as his skin started to burn from the proximity of the black fire that traced its way across the beast's back, but the speed of their passage denied his lungs the air. The wind of their passage brought tears to his eyes, blinding him.

The beast stopped abruptly, and Sasuke blinked the tears from his eyes. They were on the floor of the rainforest, a few feet from his teammates. Kakashi and Sakura were bent over Naruto, trying to revive him. The boy's chest didn't seem to be moving at all, and something horrible twisted in Sasuke's stomach at the thought that the other boy might really be dead this time.

Kakashi and Sakura both looked up at their approach. Sakura had tears in her eyes and spilling down her cheeks. The jonin's eyes widened in horror as he stared at the beast that held onto Sasuke.

Sasuke risked a glance at the beast's face. It was staring with utter intensity at Naruto. "Kyuubi," it said after what seemed forever. A weak red chakra glow surrounded Naruto as the demon tried to break free and answer the beast's call. "Protect the boy. You will both be needed." The red glow faded, and it seemed to Sasuke that Naruto's chest started to move, just a little. Sakura tore her horrified gaze from the beast and turned back to her teammate.

The beast dropped him, and he rolled away, glad to be away from the horrible fires that burned around it. _Kasumi_, he thought in horror as he imagined how they must be affecting the woman. The beast was staring at Kakashi now, and the jonin was returning the stare, though Sasuke was sure the only thing that kept the man's terror hidden was the black mask he wore. "Take care of my princess," the beast growled. Then it was gone.

Kasumi collapsed to the ground. Fire still burned and steamed around her, but the awful power of the beast's presence was gone and she just lay there, unconscious, her eyes closed and her breathing shallow.


	22. Stage Door

**Stage Door**

I know I can't hide this fear inside  
Still my friends understand  
Things have worked out  
Much as you had said  
Ain't no mystery what I need  
Is understanding and your sweet sympathy  
A steel string guitar and a little weed  
And someone to keep me company  
Someone to keep me company

_Blue Rodeo_

Sakura sat at Naruto's bedside, watching his sleeping face. He had been awake earlier, for about an hour, but the effort of talking had completely worn him out and he had quickly fallen back asleep. It had been that way for most of the week, though he stayed awake longer each time and his color improved each day. She remembered the horror that she had felt the last time he'd been brought back like this, after his fight with Gaara. The waiting had seemed endless then, and it was no better this time.

It had been almost two weeks since that disastrous day in the Rain Country. Hoskigaki Kisame had surprised them, and in the fight it had been Naruto who had saved her, driving him away and then promptly collapsing, close to death. She had been so afraid he _would _die, until Kasumi had appeared.

She had hardly slept these last weeks, because when she did she saw the monster that Kasumi had become in her dreams, and it terrified her. The burning fire, those terrible eyes… thinking about it made her want to scream and cry and curl into a little ball away from the world. After the beast spoke to the demon, Naruto had improved; not much, but enough that he no longer teetered on the brink of death.

They had left immediately after, traveling as quickly as they could, and almost constantly. Kakashi had carried Kasumi the entire way, even though the heat of the black fire that continued to burn along her back made it hard to be near her for long. A constant stream of water had seemed to seep out of the kunoichi, stopping the fire from completely destroying her fragile body.

She and Sasuke-kun had taken it in turns to carry Naruto. She had tried to take their injured teammate for the greater amount of time, because the effort aggravated the horrible burns that Sasuke-kun had gained when the beast had carried him to them. He wouldn't let her, though, and took his turn carrying their comrade without once complaining.

They had made it back to Konoha in four days, and she had hardly left the hospital since. Though Sasuke-kun had collapsed at the very door of the hospital, he had still been strong enough to make an enormous fuss when they tried to separate him from Naruto, so the two have been given a shared room. She had hardly left that room for four days as she kept a constant vigil over her two teammates.

It hadn't been a very exciting time - though Sasuke-kun had been awake fairly often, he was not inclined to talk, and spent much of his time staring out the window. The boredom didn't stop her, though. She thought she would go crazy if she could not be with them as often as possible.

Sasuke-kun had recovered before the other two, and was now walking around just like normal, although Tsunade-sama had forbidden him from training just yet. He spent most of his time at the hospital still, sitting with either Naruto or Kasumi. His presence there eased Sakura's guilt a little when she had to go home to sleep.

He was there the first time Naruto had woken, and the two had fought, although not as viscously as they normally did. Of course, Naruto had hardly been awake five minutes that time, and unable to open his eyes, so that might have been the reason. But she strongly suspected that something - or someone - had changed Sasuke's opinion of their teammate.

That someone, she suspected, was the woman in the hospital room a few doors down. The black fires had disappeared a week ago, but Kasumi still had not woken up. Kakashi-sensei was at her side constantly, except when Hokage-sama came and threw him out so he could get some sleep. She had gone to sit with him a few times when she could tear herself away from the boys and she knew that, now that he was awake, Sasuke spent every moment that he wasn't with Naruto with Kasumi.

She worried about Sasuke-kun. He had hardly spoken since he woke - he'd told her and Kakashi-sensei what had happened between himself, Kasumi and Itachi, though she suspected he had left some parts out to tell the jonin instructor in private. And he spoke to Naruto when the other boy was awake, although they mostly fought. But aside from that, he would go days without saying a word to anyone. Tsunade-sama frowned at him from time to time, but she didn't seem worried, although Sakura knew the woman could probably have hidden it if she was.

Others came to visit Naruto as well, which helped ease her worry over him. Hinata visited almost every day, sometimes only for a few moments, sometime sitting with Sakura for hours. Kiba often came with her, and Akamaru snuggled in Naruto's lap, earning a few tired pats if he did it while the blond boy was awake. Iruka-sensei came often, and seemed content to sit beside the sleeping boy. Lee and Neji came, the former loudly proclaiming Naruto's greatness until Sakura shushed him while the latter stared at his opponent from the chuunin exam in silence. Shikamaru, Choji and Ino stopped by a few times while Sasuke-kun was still in bed. Sakura suspected it was mostly because Ino wanted Sasuke-kun to see that she cared about him, but Sakura was too worried about her teammates to care much about what the blond girl was trying to do.

Several of the village's jonin stopped by Kasumi's room, mostly to check on Kakashi, Sakura thought. Her teacher had taken Kasumi's injury very hard, and it took the combined efforts of Tsunade, Kurenai and Asuma to make sure he remembered to eat.

She heard from Tenten about the one time Maito Gai had stopped by. Sasuke-kun had been there, sitting with Kasumi and his teacher. Tenten hadn't been too clear about just what the man had said, but Sakura got the impression that he implied that Kakashi was not worthy of Kasumi, and that had he, Gai, been around, such a thing would not have happened to her. In his completely ignorant way, it seemed he had also said he would win Kasumi's love away from Kakashi, thereby defeating his rival once again. Kakashi-sensei hadn't seemed to hear, but Sasuke-kun, after giving Gai a glare that was, according to Tenten, 'worthy of that Sand kid,' had grabbed the jonin and thrown him bodily from the room so hard that he had made a gigantic hole in the opposite wall. Apparently Tsunade-sama, who had witnessed the scene as she was checking up on the silver-haired kunoichi (and probably the white-haired jonin who refused to leave her side), had banned Gai from the hospital and ordered him to pay for the repair of the wall. Not a word had been said to Sasuke-kun, although Sakura thought that the Hokage seemed a little warmer towards the Uchiha afterwards.

Saskue-kun came in, and silently handed her a sandwich. "Saskue-kun, you got this for me?" she asked, surprised by the gesture. He shook his head. She glanced out the door, and saw Shizune give a slight wave before heading off in the direction of Kasumi's room. _So he was just being the messenger. Well, at least he wasn't mean about it. _Although how he could be any meaner when he already refused to talk to her, she wasn't sure. He settled himself on the bed he had spent so many days in while he recovered from his burns.

Kakashi-sensei came in a few minutes later. What she could see of his face was even paler than normal, and there was a dark bruise under his visible eye. There was an uneaten sandwich in one hand. Apparently Sasuke-kun was willing to talk to his teacher, because he looked up from his own sandwich to ask, "Kasumi?"

"Gaara and Temari are with her," Kakashi-sensei replied quietly. Sakura hadn't realized that the Sand siblings were in Konoha. Somehow, though, she wasn't surprised that Gaara had come to visit Kasumi. If she had had as big an impact on him as she had on Team Seven, there really wasn't any question of whether he would come.

Sasuke-kun nodded and looked thoughtfully at Naruto. "I don't think he's ready to see Naruto yet," the jonin added. Sasuke-kun nodded.

More significant that the Sand ninjas' presence, to Sakura, was that Kakashi-sensei had finally left Kasumi's side. It told her, more than anything else, that everything was going to be alright.


	23. Desperado II

**Desperado (II)**

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?  
Come down from your fences, open the gate  
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you  
You better let somebody love you  
Before it's too late

_The Eagles_

_I'm glad he can still cry,_ Kasumi thought to herself. She didn't think she would be able to, and from talking to Temari she knew that Gaara never did.

_There you go, whining again,_ Ryuu returned, though without any real rancor.

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. You'll see me again."

"But what if I don't?" he sniffled.

She laid gentle fingers under his chin and lifted his face so that he met her eyes. "Naruto-kun, I am not ready to die yet. We all have to have a goal, if we want to protect those we care about." She smiled at him, trying to encourage him to be strong. "You showed me that. There are other jinchuriki out there, and I have to find them if we are going to stop Akatsuki."

"But they know what you are, now," he protested. "Shouldn't you stay here with us so we can help you?"

"You have your own work to do, Naruto-kun, and I have mine. None of us is entirely safe." _Not even me_. Her back was still sore from the black fires of Itachi's jutsu.

"Kasumi…"

"I told you, Little Uchiha. He isn't dead. Ryuu broke most of his skin cells and the ends of his capillaries, but he didn't kill him. He'll be in a lot of pain for a long time, but he is still alive."

"What if… what if I fail?" His voice was so quiet, Kasumi was sure none of the others heard.

She kept her own voice as low when she answered. "The Uchiha clan will not go un-avenged," she promised him. "But you won't fail. I'll see you in three years, when he is dead." She raised her voice, and looked at Sakura. "You are already a strong kunoichi, Sakura." _And you care about these boys, even if you're sometimes very foolish. _"Take care of my boys."

"I will," Sakura said firmly, although Kasumi thought she detected a hint of a tremor in the girl's voice.

"Tsunade-sama." Kasumi turned to the Hokage who had come with the genin to see her off. "Thank you for all your care." She offered a tentative bow.

The woman smiled in return. "We'll miss you until you come back, Kasumi-chan," was her reply. Kasumi ruffled Naruto's hair, gave Sasuke's ear a playful tug, and Sakura a hug, and then she turned and walked away from the village. She had thought Kakashi would come see her off, but he had never shown up, and she couldn't delay her departure any longer.

_I wish I could cry_, she thought sadly as she walked away from Konoha. _It would be appropriate._

_It would be nonsense, _Ryuu said tartly.

Even before she rounded the corner in the path that took her into the forest, Kasumi sensed the person waiting for her. She kept her head down, unwilling to say anymore goodbyes than she already had. Kakashi hadn't come, and if she had to say goodbye to any more of the friends she had made in Konoha, they would find out if she really could cry.

"Yo." She looked up, startled. He was leaning against a tree, apparently completely at his ease. "Sorry I'm late. I…"

"Got lost on the road of life?" she teased.

"Wanted to catch you alone," Kakashi said, and she could hear the smile in his voice. She ran to him, and he caught her up in a fierce hug, which she returned.

"Oh! I have something for you," she said, remembering. She dug in her bag, and pulled out the kunoichi scarf, which she looped lightly around his neck. _The final purpose of the kunoichi scarf_, she thought with an inward smile, remembering her lessons from when she was younger. _To catch a man and tie him to you forever._

He reached into his pocket and drew something out. "A forehead protector?" she asked, as he delicately brushed the hair out of the way to tie it around her neck like a necklace, much the way Temari wore it.

"It's mine," he mumbled, and despite the mask she could see his blush. "I haven't worn it since I became a jonin." She looked up at him, understanding the significance of that to him. It had been a mark of his coming of age, just as her scarf had been for her, but he hadn't worn it since his best friend had died. _Just as I haven't worn the scarf since I left the village._

She tried to smile at him, but somehow the emotions she felt were too much for that. Instead, she reached up and drew down his mask, and kissed him as soundly as she could. He held her tightly to him, until they each drew back.

"Goodbye, Kakashi," she told him quietly, not able to meet his eyes. She wasn't sure, but she thought she felt tears in her own.

She turned away from him with her head down, so intent on not crying that she almost missed his final words, spoken under his breath. "I love you."

* * *

Fin! A massive upload following another round of editing, and I'm ready to move on, hopefully with more speed. Hope you enjoyed it! 


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